Thai cuisine · Fish & Seafood

Pla Kapong Neung Bouy

Whole sea bass steamed over ginger, with pickled salted plums and shiitake in a sweet-and-sour soy broth.

Ingredients · for 4 servings

• 1 whole sea bass (1 kg)
• 4 pickled salted plums (buoy, from an Asian grocery)
• 150 g shiitake mushrooms
• 1 piece ginger (5 cm)
• 4 spring onions
• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 150 ml chicken stock
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 bunch cilantro

Instructions

1. Wash the sea bass inside and out, pat dry and score both sides diagonally three times down to the bone so it cooks evenly.
2. Cut the ginger into fine strips, quarter the shiitake, finely chop the garlic and cut the spring onions into 4 cm pieces.
3. Coarsely crush the salted plums and mix with soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, garlic and the stock into a steaming sauce.
4. Place the fish on a heatproof platter, put half the ginger strips into the belly cavity, scatter the shiitake and spring onions around it and pour the sauce over everything.
5. Set the platter in a steamer basket over rapidly boiling water and steam covered for 15–18 min. until the flesh at the thickest part loosens easily from the bone.
6. Sprinkle with the remaining ginger strips and plenty of cilantro, and serve the fish with all the juices from the platter over jasmine rice.