← Nouns Cooking · Thai

Ingredients

• 500 g firm white fish or salmon fillets, cut into 4 pieces
• 1 pinch Salt
• 4 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 3 tbsp red or choo chee curry paste
• 250 ml coconut milk, plus 2 tbsp to finish
• 1½ tbsp Fish sauce
• 1½ tbsp Palm sugar, grated
• 4 Makrut (kaffir) lime leaves, very finely shredded
• 1 long red chilli, thinly sliced
• 1 handful Thai basil (optional)

Method

1. Pat the fish very dry and season lightly with salt. Heat 3 tbsp oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat.
2. Fry the fish for 3–4 min per side, until golden and just cooked through; it should flake when pressed. Lift onto a serving plate.
3. Wipe out the pan, add the remaining oil and the curry paste and fry over medium heat for 2 min, stirring, until it smells toasty and the oil turns red.
4. Add the coconut milk a splash at a time, stirring, then simmer for 3–4 min until the sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon and oil glistens on top.
5. Season with the fish sauce and palm sugar, then stir in most of the lime leaf. Taste: it should be rich, salty-sweet and only mildly sour.
6. Spoon the sauce over the fish, drizzle with the extra coconut milk and scatter over the chilli, remaining lime leaf and basil. Serve with rice.

Tips

• Prawns or mackerel work just as well; prawns need only 2 min in the sauce.
• Most red curry pastes contain shrimp paste.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Marion’s Kitchen Hungry in Thailand Temple of Thai