Snapper Chu Chee Curry

Here's a Thai style fish curry recipe that will work well on any white fleshed fish. In this case I've used a whole pan sized Snapper but If you find yourself with a larger model then take a side off and follow the recipe. This dish is a great way to deal with tougher specimens so if you like Thai flavours and have a big ol' moocher that your not sure what to do with then this dish is for you!

Scale, gut and gill the fish paying particular attention to the cleanliness of the cavity. Pat dry with a paper towel. Score the fish, in a blender make a rub out of garlic, ginger, chilli, cracked pepper and oil. Coat the fish and heat up the BBQ.

In a pot, combine one can of Maesri Chu Chee paste, one can of coconut cream and a cup of water. Bring to the boil and then set to simmer for a few minutes then rest it and get back to the BBQ.

Once the plate is hot wipe off any residue with paper towels. Don't let me down here you need a clean plate for this bit! Re - oil the plate and wipe clean again. The idea here is to sear the fish. It's more of a texture thing so your not trying to cook the thing through. We'll do that in a moment. If you're using a fillet the you only need to sear the skin side. You might need some help getting it on and off the plate so be prepared when you put it on there. We don't want to burn it!

When you have browned the fish. Put it in an oven dish and pour the sauce over it. Add halved cherry tomatoes, okra and cilantro. With the cilantro, make sure you use the stem and everything. You can also add some torn kaffir lime leaves and finely sliced lemongrass if you like. The paste is fairly comprehensive so you don't have to get carried away with extras, more bend it to your will. In this case I forgot the lime leaves and wasn't going to use lemongrass. Options people, you have them!

If you can't find okra then you can use zucchini. The idea is that you put a vegetable in there that will soak up a bit of the sauce without confusing the flavours too much. okra is perfect for this, zucchini is acceptable.

Once it looks like this grab the fish sauce and go nato on it. You should be adding two or three tablespoons to the curry. Now put the whole lot in the oven for about half an hour on 140C. The idea is to simmer the fish (or fillet) in the sauce and complete the cooking.

While all this is going on. Prepare some baby bok choy and grab a large skillet. Oil and heat it adding a bit of the rub that was left over from the fish to flavour the oil. When its hot add half a cup of water, throw in the bok choy, add fish sauce (about a table spoon this time) and keep it all moving. When i do this I use two of those wooden things you use to toss salad. Lets call them salad tossers and someone can reply to inform me of their appropriate name later.

Once the bok choy is well coated you can throw the lid on for a few minutes and let the steam cook through the rest of the stalks. Another trick here is to add a bit of palm sugar with the fish sauce but it's not entirely necessary.

When the fish is ready, take it out of the oven and use a spatular to remove a portion of the fillet and plate it. Then add the bok choy and some of the sauce from the fish. Garnish with cilantro and dig in.

If you have trouble finding the paste I'll see if I can work out how to make one, or at least point you in the right direction. These Maesri pastes are excellent and you'll probably find them in your favourite Thai restaurants if you look out the back. There are also plenty of places you can buy them online.

If you do give this a go let me know the result. Enjoy

This recipe is courtesy of Kiwinoz