Best Thai Grilled Sea Bass Pla Pao Recipes

THAI GRILLED SEA BASS - PLA PAO

Steps:

• Combine all ingredients except Sea Bass to form marinade.
• Pour marinade over fish in a ziplock bag or shallow dish and allow to marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• Grill over medium-hot coals until cooked through (about 4-8 minutes per inch of thickness, until fish flakes easily), turning once, and basting frequently with marinade.
• Serve with steamed jasmine rice, sauteed bok choy, and/or grilled zucchini medallions on kebabs (basted with marinade), if desired.
• Good table condiments include lime wedges and chile sauce (sambal oelek).

GRILLED SEA BASS WITH THAI CHILI SAUCE

Steps:

• In medium bowl mix lime juice, fish sauce, garlic, chiles, ginger, sesame oil and sugar. Pour half of the sauce over the fish and let sit for 1 hour refrigerated. Discard the marinade used for the fish. Grill fish over high heat, about 5 to 7 minutes, or until cooked through, and serve with the remaining half of the sauce.

THAI GRILLED FISH RECIPE (PLA PAO ปลาเผา)

Steps:

• When you buy your whole fish, ask the vendor (or yourself) to do two things: One, try to remove the guts from the gills of the fish, without slicing the fish open on the belly, and two, leave the scales on the fish (if you have the choice).
• Probably the first thing you want to do (if you're using charcoal, which I would recommend), is to get the charcoal going first, so it's ready when the fish is prepared.
• Make sure you rinse your fish with water and then pat them dry with a paper towel.
• Take your lemongrass stalks and beat and bruise them with something hard, like a mortar, or a rolling pin or something like that. This is going to bring out the lovely flavor of the lemongrass. Also prepare a small handful of kaffir lime leaves.
• Fold the lemongrass in half and begin to stuff the fish with a stalk of lemongrass and about 10 kaffir lime leaves. Depending on how big your fish is will determine how many stalks of lemongrass you can fit. I put 2 - 3 lemongrass stalks in each fish in the video. Make sure it's tight, but also make sure not to push so hard that you break the flesh of the fish.
• In a large mixing bowl or pan add ½ kilo bag of salt, sprinkle in 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour, and add about 1 tablespoon of water. Mix it up thoroughly, massaging the mixture with your hand, until it's fully mixed. You want the salt to be a little moist so it sticks to the fish easily.
• Add the fish to the pan and start plastering it with the salt mixture. Pat and rub the fish with the salt, making sure to cover the entire fish, and all over the head and tail. Do the same to both fish.
• For grilling the fish, you want to have a steady, yet quite low heat. Make sure you have a bed of coals, and if they are too hot you can either tone them down with a scoop of ashes, or push the really hot coals to one side of the grill and put the fish on the other side (using a little indirect heat). You can also add more coals as you keep on cooking. You want to slow cook the fish without them burning on the outside. My fish took almost 1 hour to grill. So aim for low heat for slow cooking.
• Once your fish is on the grill, it's time to get started on the seafood sauce (below).
• Try to wait for about 15 minutes before you flip the fish. If you flip it too early, when the salt hasn't dried out completely yet, the fish skin might get stuck onto the griddle. Flip the fish as little as possible.
• Keep roasting until the fish feels firm and the white salted skin has turned crusty and golden. It should take about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
• Take the fish off the grill, and set it on a platter.
• To eat the fish, you can either use a knife or scissors, and from the top of the fish, cut through the skin. The skin should cleanly lift off the fish revealing moist and beautiful meat.
• Thai grille fish (pla pao) is delicious with both sticky rice and white rice, and lots of seafood sauce!
• Peel about 15 cloves of garlic and grab about 20 Thai bird chilies (prik kee noo suan พริกขี้หนูสวน). Normal Thai chilies will work too. Pound ½ teaspoon of salt, the garlic, and chilies using a mortar and pestle. Doesn't need to be super fine, but make sure there are no big chunks.
• In a bowl, add the pounded garlic and chilies, 6 tablespoons of fresh squeezed lime juice, 3 tablespoons of water, 2.5 tablespoons of fish sauce, and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Mix everything together until the sugar is dissolved.
• Taste the seafood sauce. Really, it's up to you how it tastes, but you want it to be slightly salty, sour, and slightly sweet.
• If you need to add a little more of anything, go for it!

GRILLED SEA BASS WITH A PORTUGUESE SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat the grill.
• Rub each fish with 2 tablespoons olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place the fish on the hot grill and grill for 4 to 5 minutes on each side, depending on the weight of each fish.
• In a saute pan, heat the remaining olive oil. When the oil is hot, saute the onions for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, black olives and fava beans. Season with salt and pepper. Saute for 2 minutes.
• Stir in the garlic, anchovies, fresh herbs and white wine. Bring the liquid up to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 2 minutes.
• Fold in the butter, a tablespoon at a time. Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper.
• Spoon the sauce in the center of an oblong plate. Lay the fish directly on top of the sauce. Garnish with parsley.

GRILLED BLACKENED SEA BASS

Steps:

• Preheat barbecue grill.
• Combine all seasonings in small bowl and mix well.
• Melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat and pour into pie plate.
• Dip sea bass into melted butter, evenly coating both sides.
• Sprinkle both sides of sea bass with seasoning mixture.
• Place on grill and cook covered for approximately 6 to 8 minutes or until it is blackened and flakes easily.
• Turn halfway through grilling time.
• Serve with lemon and garnish with dill sprigs.

GRILLED BASS

Steps:

• Prepare grill for medium-direct heat.
• Grease the center of a 20 x 18 inch sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil with margarine.
• Arrange 2 slices each of red onion and lemon over the margarine.
• Sprinkle with one tablespoon of almonds and half of the green onions.
• Arrange the fillets in a single layer over the onions, lemon and almonds.
• Top with remaining red and green onions, lemon and almonds.
• Sprinkle lightly with salt, pepper and paprika.
• Fold the long sides of the foil together in locked folds.
• Fold and crimp short ends; seal tightly.
• Place the packet directly on the cooking grate.
• Grill, covered, for 11 to 15 minutes, or until the fish is firm and opaque, and just begins to flake.