Bruce Lawson's Plaa menow (Fish in lime)
The second in a series of posts that bring together the two sides of my blog: Food and technology. I’ve asked the great and the good from the web standards community to share their favourite recipes. This sumptuous Thai recipe is from Bruce Lawson.
Information
- Makes: 2 helpings
- Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 monk fish or sea bass (cleaned but with the head left on)
- 5 limes
- 1 stick lemon grass
- 3 lime leaves
- 5 or 6 slices of galangal
- 2 bulbs of garlic
- 6 Thai small red chillies (very small, so very spicy)
- 4tbsp sugar
- 6tbsp fish sauce
Method
- Put the fish into a dish for steaming. Then put the galangal, lemon grass (cut it in half), and lime leaves into the fish stomach.
- Cover fish and put the dish in boiling water for 15 to 20 minutes. When the fish is cooked, take it out from the steam pot.
- Chop the chillies and garlic into very small pieces and mix with the lime juice, sugar, and fish sauce. This sauce must have the 4 tastes that characterise Thai food: sour, spicy, a little bit sweet and a little bit salty.
- Serve the fish with the sauce, and don’t forget to save the most succulent pieces of fish (the eyes and the cheeks) to give to your boyfriend/girlfriend!
Bruce's notes
This is a recipe from Thailand, the home of my lovely missus and where I met her when we were both teachers in Bangkok. She teaches Thai cookery for a living now.