It’s been a while since I posted anything new and interesting. Life kind of got in the way, but I came up with this dish a while ago and figured that it needed to be shared.
Some time ago I was given several large fillets of lingcod, a large white fleshed fish of the Greenling family common off the coast of British Columbia. I’ve been preparing these mild fillets in a number of ways, but I came up with this tasty and fairly easy to prepare recipe when I needed a dish to take to a dinner party.
The recipe below involves a homemade curry paste and stock, but to speed things up a store bought paste and stock could easily be substituted.
Menu
- Baked Thai Lingcod Curry
- Coconut Rice
- Sesame Garlic Brocolli
- Cut Fresh Fruit
Recipe: Baked Thai Lingcod Curry
Curry Paste:
- 2 Tbs Canola or Peanut oil
- 1 Sm Spanish or red onion chopped
- 6 Sm Cloves of garlic chopped
- 1″ Ginger root minced
- 2-3 Tbs Sambal Oeleck to taste
- 1/2 Tbs Shrimp paste or Anchovy paste
- 2 tsp Dried red chillies ground
- 2 tsp Cumin ground
- 3 tsp Coriander seed ground
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric ground
- 1 tsp Dried lemongrass ground
- 1 Tbs Spanish paprika
- 2 Tbs Fish sauce
- 1-2 Tbs Water
- 10-15 Cashews
- 3 Lime leaves centre stalk removed chopped
Curry/Fish
- 2 Tbs Canola or peanut oil
- 1 Med Spanish or red onion halved and sliced finely
- 4 Sm Cloves of garlic sliced
- 1-2 Tbs Sambal Oeleck
- 3-4 Tbs Curry paste to taste
- 1-2 tsp Fish sauce
- 1-3 tsp Brown sugar to taste
- 1 c Thai style fish stock, plain fish stock or low sodium Chinese style chicken stock
- 1 c Coconut milk
- 4 Lime leaves
- Water for thinning while cooking
- 1 Tbs Fresh Lime juice
- 2-3 Tbs Fresh cilantro finely chopped
- 1-2 Tbs Thai basil coarsely chopped
- 2-3 lbs Lingcod or other firm whitefish fillets cut into chunks
Method
- Part 1: Curry paste
- Heat oil in wok or heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat.
- Add onion and sauté until soft and starting to lightly brown.
- Add garlic, ginger, shrimp paste and sambal and cook stirring for one to two minutes until the garlic is fragrant.
- Add the dried spices and cook stirring for another minute.
- Add fish sauce, water, cashews and chopped lime leaves and continue to cook until well combined (about a minute more).
- Remove from heat and transfer to a food processor or blender and process to a paste adding a little oil if necessary to create a thick paste.
- In the same wok or pan used to make the paste add oil and heat over a medium-high heat.
- Add onions and sauté until translucent.
- Add garlic and sambal and sauté for two minutes stirring frequently.
- Add curry paste reserving a little to smear on fish pieces (about two teaspoons) and cook for another minute or two.
- Stir in stock, coconut milk and lime leaves and bring to a low boil.
- Reduce heat to low and add fish sauce and brown sugar to taste.
- Simmer for 20 minutes to allow for the flavours to combine adding additional water if necessary to keep the consistency medium.
- Remove from heat, stir in cilantro and lime juice and let cool.
- Cut lingcod into small serving chunks (about 1″x3″) and arrange in a lightly oiled casserole dish.
- Smear a little of the reserved paste over the fish and evenly sprinkle the Thai basil over the pieces.
- Pour the cooled curry over the fish and bake in a preheated 375 f oven for 20 minutes.
- Serve hot or warm.
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Part 2: Curry and fish
Notes: I found the finished dish a little on the mild side and if you do you can always add a small handful (4-6) whole fresh red Thai chillies to the simmering curry to kick it up a notch (I usually just slit them with a single cut lengthways down the centre). The chillies also add a nice visual touch to the dish as well–just be sure to warn your guests.
Serves 4-6