Sunday 31 August 2014

Tasty Thai fish parcels with coconut and lime

After an extended summer break I'm back on the cooking and baking front, and today I'm ringing in the new culinary season with a super-delicious, easy and quick dish which is fast becoming one of my favourite ways to serve fish:


More often than not I cook white fish with a breadcrumb crust or wrapped in bacon, but a few months ago I was craving something else in the "fish department": something Asian, with coconutty, lime and ginger flavours... a quick perusal of my various cook books made me come up with this utterly divine, creamy concoction - enjoy!

4 ca 175g thick white fish fillets (cod, skrei, haddock, coley or pollack)
1/2 a bunch of spring onions, chopped finely (I always use the light green parts as well)
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
1 thumb of ginger, peeled and chopped finely
2 lemongrass stalks, hard outer layer removed, soft inner part finely chopped*
1 lime, zest grated and juiced
small handful of coriander (leaves and stalks), chopped finely
200ml coconut milk
2 tbsp fish sauce

Preheat the oven to 200°/180° fan oven. Tear off 8 large pieces of foil, then lay out 2 of them each in a "cross" form. Place a fish fillet in the middle of each and top with the onion, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, lime zest and coriander mixture. Combine the lime juice, coconut milk and fish sauce. Bring up the sides of the foil, then (carefully) pour over the coconut milk. Scrunch up the edges and sides together of each layer to make 4 sealed parcels.** Put the parcels on a baking tray and bake for ca 15 - 20 mins.
When it comes to serving, remove the cooked fish pieces with a fish slider and pour the juices over/around them and sprinkle with additional chopped coriander leaves.

Notes:
* I always freeze any left-over lemongrass stalks - they just go a tiny bit soft when defrosted, but that makes them so much easier to chop!
** There seems to be a lot of "cheffy faff" going on with how best to seal/present foil  parcels like these - ignore it all... my double cross layer folded up tightly (BUT with a bit of room "up top") works every time!
I like to serve the fish with plain boiled basmati/jasmine rice to soak up the delicious juices and a simple (Asian) salad. Boiled pak choi would also go well with this dish.

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