Whole Fish
Baked Whole Fish Thai-Style
If you’re feeding a crowd with one large fish or a few medium for this recipe, just double the sauce quantities. This Thai-style sauce doesn’t require any cooking. It’s also great drizzled over fish fillets, or use it as a dipping sauce for battered, goujon-style fish. It’s a very forgiving sauce and slightly addictive. If you’re short a few ingredients that’s ok, just don’t omit the sweet chilli or soy. Steamed rice and greens on the side will be perfect with your fish.
Use: Flounder, Brill, Sole, Tarakihi, Moki, Gurnard or Sea Perch.
ingredients
For the Fish
- 1 Whole Fish, scaled
- Flaky Sea Salt
- Oil, good quality & neutral flavoured
- Fresh flavor, Lemon/Lime slices, Kaffir Lime Leaves, Lemongrass & fresh Ginger slices all work well
For the Sauce
- ½ cup Sweet Chili Sauce
- 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
- 2 cloves Garlic, minced
- 1 knob of Ginger, minced
- 1 Lemon or Lime, juice of
- 3 dashes of Fish Sauce, or a pinch of Salt
- 1 heaped tsp Palm Sugar or Brown sugar
- 2 Kaffir Lime Leaves or a handful of Coriander, optional
For the Garnish
- Fresh Herbs, I used Thai Basil, Mint and Coriander
- Sesame Seeds, toasted
METHOD
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
- Line a baking tray with baking paper.
- Rinse the fish and pat dry (using paper towels works well). Cut a few evenly spaced large slits on each side of the fish.
- On the baking tray, drizzle the fish with oil and season generously with salt. Rub the oil & salt over both sides of the fish until it’s well covered.
- Fill the cavity of the fish with your fresh flavour.
- Place the fish in the oven. Cooking time will depend on the size of your fish. Around ten minutes per inch of thickness is a good rule to follow, and make sure it’s lost its translucent appearance. Don’t forget it will continue to cook when removed from the oven. My small-medium Tarakihi took 15 minutes.
- While the fish is cooking, prep your sauce.
- Blend all of your sauce ingredients together using a stick blender / blender / NutriBullet. Adjust flavours to taste – you might need more or less sugar/fish sauce.
- When the fish is done, transfer it to a serving plate. Drizzle over your sauce – reserving some to serve on the side. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and garnish with herbs or fresh greens around the edges. Plate up with your sides and enjoy!
Recipe by Jana from The Macpherson Diaries
