Thai cuisine · Fish & Seafood

Salt-Crusted Grilled Fish

A whole fish stuffed with lemongrass and pandan, grilled in a thick salt crust and served with a spicy lime dipping sauce.

Ingredients · for 4 servings

• 2 whole sea bream (approx. 500 g each, cleaned)
• 3 stalks lemongrass
• 2 pandan leaves
• 400 g coarse sea salt
• 2 tbsp flour
• 4 garlic cloves
• 4 Thai chilies
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 3 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 bunch coriander (cilantro)

Instructions

1. Rinse the sea bream inside and out with cold water, pat dry and stuff the cavity with the crushed lemongrass and knotted pandan leaves.
2. Mix the sea salt with flour and 4 tbsp water into a moist, moldable paste and pack it 5 mm thick all around the fish — leave the head and tail fin exposed.
3. Cook the fish over indirect charcoal heat or in the oven at 220°C for 30–35 min. until the crust turns light brown and rock hard.
4. For the dipping sauce, pound the garlic, Thai chilies, coriander stems and sugar in a mortar to a coarse paste.
5. Stir in the fish sauce and lime juice and let the sauce sit for 10 min. — it should taste spicy, sour and salty all at once.
6. Crack open the salt crust at the table and peel it away, lift the flesh off the bone, and serve with coriander leaves and the dipping sauce.