On the blog today is the most popular menu in every seafood restaurant in all of Thailand; “Pla kraphong neung manao” or “seabass steamed in chilli, lime & garlic sauce.”
Traditionally when you order this dish, they’d bring out a whole fish placed on a silver, fish shaped platter with sterno fuel in the bottom tray to keep the stock based sauce piping hot. In some restaurants, they would even give extra stock/sauce to pour over the fish. Those places are the best.
Also, I will let you in on a lil secret; when paired with steamed Chinese buns You venture into a whole new aspect of the culinary world. In my opinion there isn’t a better combination.
To make this recipe, you will need…..
Ingredients:- (serves 2)
- 2 Seabass fillet
- 5-8 bird’s eye chilli (as preffered)
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 bunch coriander, chopped
- 2 whole lime, freshly squeezed
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- ½ cup stock
- a pinch of salt
- 1/3 tsp brown sugar
Method:-
- Sprinkle salt on the fillet of fish.
- Set water in the steamer to a boil. Steam the fish (The process will take about 7 minutes in total).
- Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, add warm stock and dissolve the sugar. Followed by chilli (crush them a bit to release the flavours), garlic, fish sauce, coriander and lime. Mix to combine.
- At 3 or 4 minutes of steaming the fish, pour the sauce prepared over the fish and steam for the remaining time.
- Plate & serve with a lot of that sauce on top.
Enjoy!
