Fish with Thai Coconut-Curry Sauce

We’ve made this recipe since it first was published is Cooking Light, September 2002. It’s one of our favorite recipes, and everyone we’ve ever made it for loves it too. It’s delicious and spicy, so if you’re not a spice fan, go easy on the curry paste. We love spicy food, and we put in a heaping teaspoon of the curry paste, although I do add in more fresh ginger than the original recipe calls for. The original recipe calls for using Tilapia, which is good, but we often use Salmon, and that’s really good. Some might argue that the sauce is too strong for such a flavorful fish as Salmon, but I love the texture and butteriness of the Salmon.

The curry sauce is also an excellent curry sauce for chicken. Simply season chicken and veggies of choice (I use onion, eggplant, zucchini, and red pepper) with salt and pepper and stir fry (I stir fry each item separately and then remove from pan and keep warm while cooking the rest) in sesame oil, garlic, and ginger until done, then remove from pan. Make sauce using ingredients from curry powder through Thai basil; then squeeze some lime in and serve over rice. Delicious!

I didn’t have any coconut milk on hand tonight, so instead I used 1/2 cream and 1/2 2% milk and it was delicious.

The sauce comes together in no time at all, so you should have a game plan when you make this meal, and here’s mine:

1. Preheat the oven
2. Chop all ingredients for sauce
3. Lay out all other ingredients for sauce
4. Prepare fish
5. Start rice
6. Put fish in oven
7. Make sauce

Ingredients:

• Dark sesame oil
• 3 TBSP fresh ginger, minced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1 c. chopped green onions
• 1 tsp. curry powder
• 1-2 tsp. red curry paste or massaman curry paste
• 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
• 2 TBSP low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 TBSP brown sugar
• 1 (14-ounce) can light coconut milk
• 2 TBSP chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 TBSP of Thai basil (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 (6-ounce) tilapia or salmon fillets
• Hot cooked rice
• Lime wedges

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Heat sesame oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add ginger and garlic; cook 1 minute. Add pepper and onions; cook 1 minute. Stir in curry powder, curry paste, and cumin; cook 1 minute. Add soy sauce, sugar, and coconut milk; bring to a simmer (do not boil). Remove from heat; stir in cilantro.
3. Put enough foil on a baking sheet to wrap your fish. Place fish on foil, and drizzle with sesame oil, and squeeze 1/2 of a lime onto fish. Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper. Wrap fish in foil, sealing the edges. Bake until fish flakes. Depending on the thickness of your fish it can take anywhere from 12 minutes to 18 minutes for the thicker pieces. The nice thing about steaming fish is that you can’t really over cook it. Alternatively you can broil the fish.
4. Serve fish with sauce, rice, and lime wedges.

Fish with Thai Coconut-Curry Sauce: