Thai Style Spicy Lime Seabass

IIt's been weeks since I am back from Bangkok and I am still having the post-bangkok blues. And the hubby has been craving for our favourite Thai dish, the spicy lime seabass. Naturally I have to create this lovely dish. I have previously done up this dish before and it was 70% close and I am trying to achieve a 90marks for this round. Good that I have a Thai friend who shared her own recipe for this dish. Using her recipe as reference, I did it slightly differently. 

Ingredients:

- seabass

- 2 stalks of lemon grass (thinner portion 1cm diagonally chopped, thicker portion chopped into halves and smashed)

- chopped garlics (about 1 full clove)

- chopped ginger

- 2 limes (juice)

- 2 chilli padi (chopped)

- pinch of salt

- fish sauce 

- shaoxing wine

Steps:

1. Prepare the broth first. Using a small pot, boil about 1 cup of water. Using a frying pan, add oil and stir fry the following in this order: thicker lemongrass, ginger, garlic. Allow the individual aroma to be released each time before adding the next ingredient. Add the boiling water into the wok to simmer. Add in 2 tbsp of fish sauce. Let it simmer a while before transferring to the pot to further boil over small to medium heat. Add the chopped chilli into the broth. I did not fry the chilli together as I do not want the broth to be too spicy till the rest of the flavour are masked. 

2. While the broth is boiling, let's prepare the fish. To allow faster and even cooking, I make slits at the back of the fish separating the fish meat and the fin bones. Placed a slice of ginger each in the slit. Stuff some chopped lemongrass and ginger into the fish stomach. 

3. Prepare the steamer. 

4. Place the seabass on the plate, marinate with salt on both sides, and pour 1tsp of shaoxing wine over it. Next sprinkle the lemongrass, chilli and remaining garlic over the fish. Send the fish into the steamer for 15mins. 

5. While 5 mins into steaming, open the cover and pour the broth and lemongrass stalks into the plate and continue steaming for 10 more mins. 

6. Pour the lime juice over the fish. I did not cook the lime juice in the broth as over cooking will cause the juice to turn bitter and not sour. Adding the lime juice last enhances the refreshing sour taste. 

7. Ready to serve. You may add garnishing at this stage. I skipped that cos we were too eager to tuck in. :)

Happy seabassing!

Happy mum