• Lightly season the catfish steaks with salt, pepper, chicken stock and chili powder. Gently rub the seasonings on both sides of the fish steaks.

You can use any white fish, but it’s traditionally cooked using catfish or mudfish.

• In a soup pot, add vegetable oil and fry the minced garlic till golden brown. Transfer the fried garlic to a small bowl (to be used as garnish for the soup later) but keep a little of the oil in the pot. 

• Add the diced tomato and sauté for 1 minute. Then add 1.5L water and bring to a boil.

• In a separate small saucepan, cook the tamarind pulp with 250ml water for 2 minutes. Use a spatula or a spoon to break up the tamarind chunks. 

• Then pour this liquid into the soup pot through a sieve. Use a spoon to press and force as much tamarind through the sieve as possible. Scape off the tamarind paste at the bottom of the sieve and stir into the soup pot. Discard the leftover fiber in the sieve.

• Add sugar and fish sauce to the soup. 

• Bring to a boil before adding the fish steaks and cook on medium high for 5-7 minutes or until the fish is cooked through. 

• Remove the fish from the soup. 

• Add tomatoes, pineapple, okra, elephant ear stem, and cook for 1-2 minutes. Then add bean sprouts. Adjust the broth to your taste with salt, sugar, fish sauce or chicken stock. (I added an extra 2 tsp salt and 1 tsp chicken stock).

Elephant ear steam can be replaced by celery.