Thai-style sour orange curry of yellowtail scad & broccolini

Recipe courtesy of Sydney Seafood School www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au/seafood-school/about-sss

(1)

Cooking difficulty: Easy

Serves: 4

Preparation: 10 mins

Cooking: 15 mins

Wrapping in lettuce, cabbage, spinach or even seaweed can:

1. add flavour
2. shape the seafood
3. help keep the flesh together
4. help retain moisture
Tips for using ice to chill seafood

choose snow, flake or shaved ice and surround the seafood
Tips for Steaming

Seafood can be steamed over plain water, but a concentrated stock flavoured with vegetables, herbs or citrus, for example, will impart a subtle flavour.
Tips for shallow frying

If flour is the only coating used, apply it immediately prior to cooking.

Prevent sticking by ensuring that the oil is hot before adding the seafood. But make sure the oil is not so hot that it smokes (unless preparing a Cajun-style "blackened" fish).
Tips to prevent scales from flying around:

1. scale under water, or
2. place the board at an angle in the sink.
3. pay particular attention to the areas around the belly, gills and fins because the scales there can be easily missed.
4. on finfish with large scales, it may be easier to scale the head region first and then work back towards the tail. The scales near the head have fewer scales overlapping them hindering their removal.
5. when you grasp the head to scale the finfish, hold the pectoral fin back with your thumb because the small bones in the fin can be dangerous if flicked out when scaling.

Ingredients

2 cups chicken stock

½ tablespoon palm sugar

½ cup tamarind liquid (see recipe tips)

200g yellowtail scad fillets, skin off, bones removed

125g cherry tomatoes, halved

1 stalk broccolini, cut into florets, stem sliced

2 tablespoons fish sauce, more or less, to taste

1 lime, juiced

Steamed jasmine rice, to serve

Sour Orange Curry Paste

5 red shallots, roughly chopped (see recipe tips)

2cm piece ginger, peeled, roughly chopped

10 small red chillies, roughly chopped

Salt flakes, to taste

1 teaspoon gapi (see recipe tips)

Method

Process all curry paste ingredients in a blender or food processor, adding a little water or stock if necessary to form a smooth paste.

Place stock in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat, add Curry Paste, palm sugar and most of the tamarind liquid and stir until paste dissolves. Add fish, tomatoes and broccolini and simmer until fish is cooked, stirring regularly to break it up. Taste and add fish sauce, lime juice and more tamarind liquid if needed.

To serve

Serve with steamed rice.

Recipe Tips

Dried tamarind pulp is sold in blocks at Asian grocery stores.

To make tamarind liquid, work 3 tablespoons of tamarind pulp into ¾ cup of warm water then strain through a fine sieve, pressing down to remove as much tamarind as possible.

If red shallots are unavailable, use 2 large golden shallots or 1 small red onion.

Gapi, Thai shrimp paste, is available from Asian grocers.

Boiled curries such as this are often sold in the markets of Thailand; they are among the oldest and simplest of Thai curries and are usually made with seafood. An oily fish complements the tartness of this sour orange curry and, as the fish is broken up to thicken the curry, an inexpensive fish like yellowtail scad is ideal.

It is meant to be hot and sour, but if you like a little less heat, seed the chillies before chopping them.

fishfiles

Thai-style sour orange curry of yellowtail scad & broccolini

Send Selected Recipes to an Email Address

Thai-style sour orange curry of yellowtail scad & broccolini

Your recipe list

Send Selected Recipes to an Email Address