Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Aromatic Steamed Fish Curry (pg. 180)



I wasn't planning on cooking from the book last night but as I was half-heartedly flipping through it I noticed this recipe and realized I had all the ingredients already except the fish plus I had some of that great leftover yellow rice to serve with it. This is the thing I really love about cooking from this book if you make a good run to the asian grocery and get a few staple items it is easy to cook many different recipes and only have to pop out to the store for some fresh meat, fish or veggies. I didn't quite understand the directions for steaming the fish in the recipe but the headnote said the original recipe was cooked in banana leaves. I actually had some frozen banana leaves so I used these and made little packets to steam the fish in. I wasn't a big fan of this dish. It may be my fault ... I definitely over-salted the fish so it brought out the tangy-ness of the lime and cilantro and was a bit overpowering. I also threw in a couple of shrimps to each packet. Although we were not fans for the marinade, we both agreed that steaming the fish and shrimp in the leaves really works perfectly and doesn't overcook the fish or shrimp. Here is how we cooked the banana leaf packets in case anyone runs across some and feels like being experimental, we cooked it at 450 degrees for 15-20 minutes and then let it sit outstide the oven for 5 more minutes before opening the packet.

3 comments:

wirrek said...

Yeah, your fish in green curry sauce does look more appetizing. Sorry this one didn't really work for you. My mom wanted to know who keeps banana leaves in their freezer!

Robin said...

Yeah, that does seem funny, I know. We actually hunted down banana leaves a couple of months ago because we saw a Jamie Oliver cooking show on tv that featured a steamed fish in banana leaf. One banana leaf is huge ... about the height of me and the package had several so we tossed them in the freezer and have plenty left to experiment with!

KristiB said...

LOL. I have banana leaves in my freezer from the Mexican dish on my blog. I bought a Rick Bayless cookbook so I'm sure I'll be using the rest of my banana leaves one day.