plaa neung prik manao

I'm addicted to fish lately. I've been trawling through my cooking books for great fish recipes. This particular one from David Thompson's Thai Street Food is a classic Thai dish. Salty, spicy, sour and sweet, an all-in-one dish.

I made a few modifications for convenience purposes. The recipe asked for banana leaves to plate the fish, which I omitted, because I couldn't find any. It also asked for barramundi, but the barra in my local seafood market wasn't particularly fresh that day, so I substituted it with a whole gold band snapper instead.


Plaa neung prik manao
Adapted from David Thompson's Thai Street Food

Ingredients:

• 1 whole snapper
• chopped coriander for garnish

Sauce:

• 2 coriander roots, minced
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 3 bird's eye chillies, minced
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 4 tbsp lime juice
• 2 tbsp fish sauce

Method:

1. Rinse fish and pat dry. Score the fish with three diagonal slices on both sides
2. Make the sauce by pounding the coriander roots to a fine paste with a pinch of salt. Add the garlic, chillies and sugar, continue pounding to a fine paste. Add the lime juice and fish sauce.
3. Plate the fish and steam over barely simmering water until cooked, about 20 minutes. The flesh should be opaque, if not, keep steaming.
4. Remove fish from steamer, spoon the chilli and lime sauce over the fish. Serve garnished with the chopped coriander.