Thai Fish - Steamed with Chili and Lime

This is a Thai fish recipe called Pla Neung Manao which is a Thai fish steamed with chili and lime. We used Sea Perch as our Thai fish but you can use any similar fish. One of the benefits of living in Thailand is that not only can you buy really fresh vegetables but can also find a great variety of fresh fish at extremely low prices. Among Thai people, this is one of the most popular Thai fish recipes because of the fantastic mixture of spicy and sour flavours.

Ingredients for Thai Fish – Steamed with Chili and Lime

1 Sea Perch (about 600g) scaled, cleaned and washed.
5 Garlic cloves, skinned and roughly chopped.
5 Small hot chillies, finely chopped, red or green or both. ( We used a Thai Chili called Prik Kee Noo which literally means ‘mouse dropping chili’.
2-3 Tbsp Lime juice
2 Tbsp Light Soy sauce
1 Cup Chicken stock
1 Lime, sliced thinly
A few leaves of Chinese Celery (Optional)
A few leaves of Chinese Cabbage (Optional)

Method

1. Put water into a steamer and wait for it to boil.

2. Put the Garlic, Chillies, Lime juice, Soy sauce and Chicken stock into a small bowl and set aside.

3. Make 3 diagonal slits on 1 side of the fish and put in into the steamer. Put the Chinese Celery and Chinese Cabbage (if using) into the steamer beside the fish together with a few slices of Lime.

4. Steam for about 10 minutes. Spoon the contents of the small bowl over the fish and continue to steam for a further 5 minutes approximately or until the fish is completely cooked.

5. Remove the fish and vegetables (if using) from the steamer. Spoon a little of the water from the steamer over the fish and serve with slices of Lime.