Thai Sunday

When the wind is gushing outside with a speed that can blow you away and a house that feels more like the inside of a fridge, spending your time in front of the oven actually feels like heaven. Another excuse to keep pending my assignment. Yes, I have yet another assignment lined up next week. But this time, is a group one, so the work is shared.

I have defrosted a nice fillet of fish in the fridge that is ready to be prepped. When it comes to savoury food, a combination of sour, salty and a nice kick of heat is always my favourite, especially when it comes to seafood. That's why I always cook my fish, Thai style.

To make it even more Thai, I also made a fresh pot of Thai milk tea. Eventhough I always tried to make everything from scratch, this time, I chose to go the instant way with a sachet of ready made thai milk tea. I always loved this rather bright orange coloured drink. Not just because it's attractive colour, but also from it's sweet and fragrant take on the ordinary milk tea. And it complements Thai style dishes perfectly. However, this is the first time I drank it hot. With this weather, I certainly didn't feel like for ice cold drinks.

For the fish, I decided to bake them instead of frying them. Making them healthier and fuss free from dealing with hot oil splats. It uses all the traditional Thai spices like lemongrass, ginger, coriander and kaffir lime leaves. I did cheat a bit by using store bought red curry paste.. but you can always make them yourself if you like. A little warning, I can handle a little bit of heat, so this recipe is quite hot, however, if you like to mellow the heat, you can deseeded the chilli or leave it out all together.


Thai chilli fish
adapted from here
2 fillet of white fish
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
a handful of fresh coriander, chopped
about 2 cm of fresh ginger, grated
1 lemongrass, chopped
1 tbs of red curry paste
2 kaffir lime leaves, chopped
2 tbs of sweet chilli sauce
3 tbs of lime juice
2 chillies, chopped
3 tbs fish sauce
1/2 tbs palm sugar

Clean the fish and make 3 or 4 large score on the skin. Combine all the ingredient in a shallow oven proof dish. Mix in the fish and combine the marinating ingrediant to completely coat the fish. Refrigerate for up to 2 hours. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180 C. Bake fish covered in aluminium foil for 20-25 minutes. Remove foil and place fish on the top rack of your oven and grill until the skin are crispy, usually takes about 8-10 minutes. Serve with jasmine rice and Thai milk tea.