Assam Pedas: Head Fish

We had this with Mutton Soup. I used to cook this with the whole head being dump into the gravy. However, based on my observation, we could actually cut the head accordingly and still we do not lose the accent of it.
The Ingredients:

• chilli, onion, garlic, tumeric (pound them but the garlic and tumeric should not be too much.)
• oil (heat the pot first before pouring the oil. Then put in the pounded ingredients. Fry until you see the curdle)
• belacan (depending on the amount of your chilli.)
• Assam Jawa and water (not sure what this is in English. Squeeze out the juice. The amount of water depending on how much you want the gravy to be. However, too much water would make the gravy watery. My hubby likes his thick. To get this, you must know how to balance the chilli and the assam.)
• Head fish (the main ingredient)
• torch ginger bud (slice it finely)
• kesum
• sugar and salt

WARNING: Cooking this dish is rather messy especially at the beginning stage where you fry the chilli and belacan. As you need to really fry the chilli, the chilli would spurt everywhere. A friend of mine nagged me as I forgot to tell her about this.
Frying the chilli is the crucial part. Pouring the assam too early, the chilli might not be fully cooked. Too late, they just merely burn.
Once everything has been dumped in, let it simmer for at least 15 to 20 minutes. This is to make sure the gravy gets to the fish.
The beauty of this dish is that you can have different main ingredient. You might want to have chicken instead of fish or even hard boiled eggs. However, for hard boiled eggs, the gravy should be very thick. And the best type of egg is Telur Pindang.