Delicious UK - (04)April 2020

Wholesteamedfishwith

pickledplums(planeung

kiembuoy)

SERVES2 (OR4 ASPARTOFA THAIMEAL).

HANDS-ONTIME 10 MIN,COOKING

TIME 20 MIN

MAKE

AHEAD

Prepare the fish, sauce and

garnish up to 4 hours ahead

and chill. Assemble and

cook the fish to serve.

FOOD

TEAM’S

TIP

If you don’t have a steamer,

heat the oven to 200°C/

180°C fan/gas 6. At step 3,

put the fish on a plate in a roasting

tin, cover with foil, then bake for

15 minutes and continue with step 4.

• 1 whole fish, about 400g (pomfret
  is traditional, but tilapia and sea
  bass work well), scaled and gutted


• 3 pickled plums in brine and 1 tbsp
  of their liquid (if using umeboshi
  just add 1 tbsp water), stoned and
  roughly chopped


• 2 tbsp light soy sauce


• 2 tbsp oyster sauce


• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil


• 1 tsp sugar


• 1-2 spring onions, sliced diagonally


• 2cm piece fresh ginger, finely sliced


• Handful chinese celery leaves (or
  regular celery leaves)
  
  
  • 1 large red chilli, finely sliced
  
  
  • Cooked sticky jasmine rice to serve
  
  
  
  

1 Wash, then dry the fish well with

kitchen paper. Use a sharp knife to

cut a few slashes in each side, down

to the bone. Set aside.

2 In a bowl, mix the plums and their

liquid/water with the soy and oyster

sauces, sesame oil, sugar and 2 tbsp

water to form a sauce, squashing

the plums with the back of a spoon

to break them down a little. Keep

stirring until the sugar has dissolved.

3 Put the fish on a heatproof plate

that will fit into your steamer (or see

tip). Pour the sauce over the fish,

cover, then steam on a medium-

high heat for about 15 minutes,

depending on the size of your fish.

4 After 15 minutes, add the spring

onion, ginger, celery leaves and red

chilli. Cover again and cook for 5

minutes more or until the fish is just

done (when you can lift the flesh off

the bones easily using a knife tip).

5 Transfer the fish to a warm serving

platter and pour over the cooking

juices. Serve with steamed rice.

PER SERVING (FOR 4) 190kcals,

9.9g fat (2.1g saturated), 18.5g

protein, 6.4g carbs (5g sugars),

2.2g salt, 0.8g fibre

NEXT

MONTH

Part5:grilling

LOOKING

FOR PARTS

ONE TO

THREE?

If you’ve missed

the first three

parts in Kay’s

Thai cooking

series,

you can find

themonlineat

delicious

magazine.co.uk

A BIT ABOUT

KAY...

Food writer

and broadcaster

Kay is the author

of Baan: Recipes

and Stories from

my Thai Home

(Pavilion Books

£20) and books

on cocktails,

aperitifs and

drinks.

Howtomaster

steaming,Thaistyle

SPECIALEQUIPMENT

You’llneeda steamerlarge

enoughtoholdthefish.I use

a tieredmetalone,butyou

canusea traditionalbamboo

steamer.Thebottomofthefish

maycookmorequicklythan

thetop,sotestthefishasit

steamstopreventovercooking.

SPECIALINGREDIENTS

Pickledplumsarealsosoldas

saltedplumsinbrine.They

adda sweetandsourtangto

fishdishes,soupsanddipping

sauces.BuytheminAsian

supermarkets.Alternatively,

buyJapaneseumeboshiplums

(similarbutnotsoldinbrine)

fromsouschef.co.uk.

GETTINGTHEDISHRIGHT

Thisrecipeisaboutsimplicity

andhasa gentleflavour,spiked

bythetartplumsandspicy

chillies.It’sessentialtoserve

thefishassoonasit’sready,

soeveryonecandiveinwhile

it’shot.Thetrickistohave

everythingpreppedandready

togobeforeyoustartsteaming.

PHOTOGRAPHSMAJASMEND FOODST YLINGKATYMCCLELLANDSTYLINGTONYHUTCHINSON

1. Make a Thai green curry 2. The art of stir-frying 3. Secrets of Thai soup

110 deliciousmagazine.co.uk