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Whole roasted sea bass in banana leaf with lemongrass ginger paste, coconut rice and shredded rainbow salad

Malaysian Style Whole Fish

Recipe summary: A whole sea bass rubbed with a fragrant lemongrass, ginger, chilli and peanut paste, wrapped in banana leaf and roasted until just cooked through — served with coconut rice, a quick chilli pickle and a shredded rainbow salad. Wilson’s Ginger Flavoured Lime Juice goes into the paste and the rice for a citrus thread that runs all the way through the dish.
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Servings: 4
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Malaysian-Inspired

Ingredients
  

  • For the paste:
  • 1 stick of lemongrass
  • 1 shallot peeled
  • 5 cm piece of fresh ginger peeled
  • 3 fresh red chillies deseeded
  • 6 kaffir lime leaves fresh or dried, stalks removed
  • 100 g unsalted peanuts
  • 1 tablespoon tomato purée
  • 2 tablespoons fish sauce
  • 1 –2 tablespoons Wilson’s Ginger Flavoured Lime Juice
  • For the fish:
  • 1 x 800g whole sea bass scaled and gutted, from sustainable sources
  • 1 large banana leaf or baking paper
  • 1 tablespoon low-salt soy sauce
  • For the chilli pickle:
  • 3 mixed-colour chillies finely sliced
  • 1 pinch of sugar
  • 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
  • Sea salt
  • For the coconut rice:
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon creamed coconut
  • 1 mug of jasmine rice
  • 1 tablespoon Wilson’s Ginger Flavoured Lime Juice
  • For the rainbow salad:
  • 50 g fresh coconut finely grated
  • 75 g sugar snap peas halved
  • 75 g mangetout halved
  • ¼ Chinese cabbage finely shredded
  • ¼ red cabbage finely shredded
  • ¼ cucumber finely shredded
  • 1 ripe mango peeled and finely sliced
  • ½ bunch fresh mint
  • ½ bunch fresh coriander
  • ½ bunch fresh basil
  • Juice of 1 lime

Method
 

  1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/gas 7.
  2. Whack the lemongrass against your work surface and remove the tough outer layer. Roughly chop the lemongrass, shallot, ginger and chillies. Add to a large pestle and mortar with a good pinch of sea salt and the lime leaves and pound to a paste.
  3. Toast the peanuts in a dry pan over medium heat for 3 minutes until golden. Bash half into the paste. Add the tomato purée, fish sauce and Wilson’s Ginger Flavoured Lime Juice, then mix to combine.
  4. Score the sea bass skin at 1cm intervals in a criss-cross pattern. Rub the paste all over the fish, inside and out.
  5. If using a banana leaf, hold it briefly over a gas flame to make it pliable and release its oils. Place the fish in the centre, fold over and seal snugly. Alternatively, use a double layer of baking paper. Place on a baking tray and roast for 25 minutes until the flesh is succulent and comes away from the bone easily.
  6. For the rice: heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Crumble in the creamed coconut and add the Wilson’s Ginger Flavoured Lime Juice. Tip in the rice and fry for 2 minutes, then pour over 1 mug of boiling water. Turn heat to low, cover and cook for 12 minutes. Remove from heat and steam, covered, for a further 3 minutes.
  7. For the chilli pickle: combine the sliced chillies, sugar, vinegar and a pinch of salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
  8. For the salad: place the grated coconut in a serving bowl. Add the sugar snaps, mangetout, both cabbages, cucumber and mango. Pick in most of the herb leaves. Squeeze over the lime juice and toss together.
  9. Unwrap the fish onto a serving platter. Crush the remaining peanuts and scatter over the fish and salad. Drizzle the fish with soy sauce and scatter over the remaining herbs.
  10. Bring everything to the table and let people help themselves.

Notes

Adapted from Jamie Oliver’s Malaysian-Style Whole Fish, from Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast.
 
Banana leaves are available from Asian supermarkets. If you can find one, use it — the leaf keeps the steam in and adds a subtle fragrance that baking paper can’t replicate.
 
Wilson’s Ginger Flavoured Lime Juice goes into both the paste and the rice. In the paste it amplifies the ginger and adds a citrus thread that runs through the fish. In the rice it brightens what could otherwise be a rich, heavy base.
 
Score the fish deeply enough that the paste actually gets into the flesh — 1cm intervals, all the way through the skin.