Fried Fish with Thai Herbs

Fried fish with Thai herbs

Bplah Tod Sa Mun Pri


Serves 2 Cooks in 60 minutes Difficulty MEDIUM


Ingredients

  • 1 whole fish, gutted and cleaned
  • Crispy flour or tempura flour
  • 1 lime, quartered and very finely sliced
  • Juice of 2 limes
  • 1 shallot
  • 3 lemongrass stalks, cut into 3cm pieces
  • Handful of cashew nuts
  • 4-8 chilli, chopped
  • 3 fresh green pepper corn stalks
  • 6 kaffir lime leaves, stalks removed and 3 finely sliced.
  • Thumb size piece of ginger, finely diced
  • 2 tbsp crispy shallots
  • 4 dried chilli
  • 3 tbsp fish sauce
  • 2 tbsp palm sugar
  • 1 tsp chicken stock
  • 1 tbsp chilli paste in oil
  • 1 tbsp tamarind sauce

Method

  1. Fillet the fish, keep the fish remains to one side. Cut the filets into chunks around 3cm. Coat the fish pieces in crispy flour or tempura flour and deep fry until cooked and golden. Place on a paper towel.
  2. Repeat this for the remains of the fish, coat in the crispy flour and deep fry.
  3. Smash the lemongrass pieces in a pestle and mortar for around 3 minutes. The lemongrass should be in fine strands. Then mix in a little tempura flour.
  4. Deep fry the lemon grass, three of the kaffir lime leaves and the dried chilli until the lemongrass is nice and crispy. Drain and set to one side.
  5. In a small sauce pan, heat the palm sugar, fish sauce, stock, chilli paste, juice from 2 limes and the tamarind sauce. Mix until all the ingredients have melted together and set aside to cool.
  6. In a bowl, mix the shallots, chilli, ginger, lemongrass, cashew nuts (save a few cashew nuts for topping at the end), the remaining 3 lime leaves finely sliced, the sliced lime and the crispy shallots.
  7. When the sauce has cooled, add this mixture to the sauce and mix well.

To Serve

Lay the remains of the fish on a plate, then add the crispy fish pieces, pour on the sauce mixture followed by the crispy lemongrass. Top with a few cashew nuts and the green pepper corns.

Hope you enjoy my bplah tod sa mun pri. Khop Khun Ka from Apple 🍎 Riverside Thai Cooking in Khao Lak.