Chilli lime Thai fish with coriander, by James

 |   |  1 min read

Chilli lime Thai fish with coriander, by James

James is my Thai friend and a wonderful chef (see his Authetically Thai Chicken recipe), and this is a rare treat.

It helps in the presentation to have one of those fish-shaped trays with candles underneath to keep the dish warm on the table, and should definitely be served with sticky rice because the sauce is sublime.

There are also ingredients here which might mean you have to make a trip to your local Thai or Chinese store, but making this one is more than half the fun.

INGREDIENTS 

Whole snapper or terakihi (for ease ask your fishmonger to gut and scale it, and take the fins and tail off, but leave the head on)

bottle of pickled garlic in brine

bottle of pickled plums

a dozen button mushrooms

a handful of fresh coriander

a lemon

sugar

two spring onions

some red chilli

three stalks of lemon grass

fish sauce

can of baby corn

half a cabbage

METHOD

slice corn lengthwise and quarter the button mushrooms. Place in a dish with a little chopped cabbage. In another dish put finely chopped spring onions and coriander with three heads of finely chopped lemon grass and a touch of chilli, and half the lemon sliced.

Then, in a large pan, guess the amount of water necessary to just cover the fish and bring to the boil. Lightly slice the flesh of the fish (to allow the sauce to penetrate) and add to the boiling water. Add the dish of corn and mushrooms etc and keep on a slow boil until the fish goes white.

Then add the contents of the second dish to the broth with two tablespoons of fish sauce, and the juice of the rest of the lemon.

Keep the broth on a low boil and add four or five pickled plums then a tablespoon of pickled garlic water and three of the pickled garlic heads.

About now you may wish to add more fresh coriander and sliced spring onions because at this point it is all down to taste. You may like to add more sugar (to sweeten and reduce the tang of th fish sauce) or you may prefer a little more lemon. It's your call.

But James says you just experiment with what you like.

Then place the fish and broth into the serving tray, and produce the sticky rice.

Eat knowing this is pretty damn good for you as well as being extremely delicious. And raise a toast to my generous friend James.

Share It

Your Comments

Sam - Jun 24, 2009

This sounds like a nice recipe, but why is it called chili lime fish? It doesn't seem to contain any lime at all.

post a comment

More from this section   Recipes from Elsewhere articles index

Jaron's Roast Duck Tacos

Jaron's Roast Duck Tacos

In late March the Auckland Craft Beer and Food Festival takes over the Spark Arena in downtown Auckland. With music, food trucks, craft beer and more, the ACBFF on Saturday March 27 (1-5pm) is... > Read more

Louisiana Shrimp Etoufee

Louisiana Shrimp Etoufee

In my travel book Postcards from Elsewhere I write about being in cajun country in Louisiana where the bayou seems mysterious and the food is exceptional. That chapter about Breaux Bridge and... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

NICK CAVE, FROM OUTSIDER TO AUTEUR IN THE NINETIES: Let Love In to No More Shall We Part

NICK CAVE, FROM OUTSIDER TO AUTEUR IN THE NINETIES: Let Love In to No More Shall We Part

From the early Nineties, Nick Cave -- ever so slowly -- ceased to be a preoccupation of those who immersed themselves in the gloom of his raw and dirty blues-based music and became a respected,... > Read more

1964: EYES OF THE STORM by PAUL McCARTNEY

1964: EYES OF THE STORM by PAUL McCARTNEY

When the Beatles flew to balmy Miami from wintry Washington DC in February 1964 they were taking a week-long and well-deserved break. If 1963 had been a year of incremental fame in Britain,... > Read more