Fish with me
Thanks to the vloggers who share their recipes in their YouTube channels, I can now cook one of my favorite dishes: steamed Thai fish with lime sauce. When I first tasted this dish several years ago in a Thai restaurant in Manila, I was amazed. Not only was the fish tender and succulent, but the accompanying sauce also had the perfect balance of the sour, spicy, salty and sweet. The sauce was also substantial enough to be not just an accompaniment for the fish, but also to even be a soup to sip, savor and spread on cooked rice.
Alas, that restaurant soon closed and for a long time I hadn’t been able to find the same dish elsewhere. It was only in these past few years that it made an appearance again in the menus of some rejuvenated Thai restaurants.
In the past when I tried to recreate this dish at home, I wasn’t very successful. How to make that soupy sauce was the problem. The lack of real lime in Manila was another issue. Somehow, the green lemon grown in Baguio lacked the fragrance and the slightly sweet, slightly sour nature of those emerald green true limes.
Recently, I came upon some YouTube channels that featured recipes for this dish. What a revelation! It turned out that the secret to that soupy sauce is not just the limes, but also the chicken stock or broth, which serves as the base. And no wonder it has that enchanting balance of flavors. The broth is simmered with sugar, garlic, fish sauce (patis), chopped chilies and wansuy.
On a recent trip to Singapore, I then made sure to bring home some limes—and the first chance I got, I tried the recipe for Thai steamed fish which I learned from the vloggers. This time, success! I was finally able to achieve a soupy sauce that’s simultaneously sweet, sour, spicy and salty, which is a hallmark of Thai cuisine. But even though I now know how to cook this dish, I will still order it the next time I dine in a Thai restaurant. Here’s the recipe for this fascinating classic Thai dish.
Thai fish with lime
For the fish:
- 1 whole fish, about 800 grams (lapulapu, apahap or snapper)
- Coarse salt
- Few stalks lemongrass, white parts only
- Few slices ginger
- For the sauce:
- 1 cup chicken stock or broth
- 2 tbsps. brown sugar
- 1 to 2 tbsps. patis
- 1 whole bulb garlic, peeled and chopped
- 1 to 2 pcs. red or green siling labuyo, chopped (seeds removed for lesser heat)
- 1 cup chopped wansuy (coriander) leaves, stems and roots (see tip below)
- 4 to 5 pcs. limes (or use 6 dayap)
To garnish:
- Fresh wansuy leaves
- Sliced lime
Procedure:
Prepare the fish: Have the fish gutted and cleaned by the fish vendor. Before cooking the fish, check its inside very well. Remove any remaining membrane or blood inside the fish by washing it in running water to make sure the fish is very clean and to remove any remaining fishy smell. Wipe until dry the inside and the outside of the fish with paper towels.
Cut diagonal slits on both sides of the fish. Sprinkle with salt, then wash the salt away under running water. Pound the stalks of the lemongrass to release the flavor. Stuff the inside of the fish with the lemongrass and the sliced ginger.
Arrange some vegetable sticks (carrots, or ginger or stalks of lemongrass) on a heatproof plate large enough to accommodate the fish. Lay the fish on top of these. This is to elevate the fish slightly so the steam gets under the fish. If desired, put more ginger slices on top of the fish.
Put the fish in a steamer (make sure the water in the steamer is already boiling before putting in the fish). Steam the fish for 10-11 minutes, or until the fish is fully cooked. To test if it’s cooked, stick a chopstick on the fleshiest part of the fish. If the flesh is white and flaky, then the fish is done. Also the eyes of the fish should be bulging out. Let the steamer cool slightly, then remove the fish from the steamer.
Prepare the sauce:
Heat the chicken stock or broth in a saucepan. Add the sugar and simmer until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the patis, garlic, siling labuyo and chopped wansuy leaves, stems and roots. Simmer for a few minutes, then remove from the heat and let cool.
When the mixture has cooled, pour in the lime juice and stir well.
To serve:
Pour out any liquid from the steamed fish (discard the liquid). Transfer the fish to a serving platter. Pour the lime juice mixture over the fish. Garnish with more wansuy leaves and lime slices before serving.
Cook’s tips:
When buying wansuy, make sure to buy those with the roots still attached. The flavor of the wansuyis mostly in the roots, so including them will enhance the taste of the sauce. Clean these roots well, removing any hairy parts with the blunt side of a knife. Then chop finely.
Red siling labuyois spicier than the green ones. If you want a less spicy sauce, use green siling labuyo and remove the seeds.
Pour the lime juice into the sauce only when the sauce has cooled so its sourness doesn’t dissipate.
If you don’t have limes, you can use dayap.
