Fish With Lime Sauce

Now that we’re into warmer weather, this fish with lime sauce looked like an easy way to have dinner and eat more seafood. Serves 4:

For the fish:

2 whole sea bass (about 1 pound/400 grams each) scaled and gutted
2 stalks lemongrass
3” piece of ginger, sliced
4 makrut lime leaves or the zest of a lime

For the sauce

½ cup chicken stock
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
5 large garlic cloves, minced
3 Thai chiles minced (more or less to taste)
¼ cup lime juice
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C.

Score the fish on both sides, just going through the skin. Using a pestle or something heavy, bash the lemongrass a few times to release the fragrance. Stuff the belly of each fish with a lemograss stalk, a few slices of ginger and 2 lime leaves.

Place the fish on a roasting pan big enough to hold it and add a splash of water. Seal tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 15-20 minutes until the flesh is opaque and cooked through.

While the fish is cooking, make the sauce. In a small pot bring the chicken stock to a simmer over medium-high heat. Add the sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat.

Add the garlic and the chiles and stir to combine. Add the lime juice, fish sauce, and cilantro.

Remove the lemongrass, lime leaves and ginger from the belly. Transfer to a large platter, top with the sauce, serve with some steamed rice and enjoy!

My verdict :

This was good for trying to conquer my « fear » of cooking whole fish, but dealing with a whole fish is a pain. Lots of bones, messy to serve etc. Next time, filets (four 6 ounce or 160 gram) in parchment for 10-15 minutes. There will be a next time because it was delicious with the sauce! I probably used a lot more cilantro, but who has a problem with that?

If you’re wondering, the fish I used is a loup de mer, the French equivalent of a sea bass.

You could use vegetable stock, or even water for the sauce if you wanted to keep it pescatarian.

Also, for a simple dish, the cleanup was kind of brutal. 2 pots (one for the rice), a roasting pan and the platter.

The sauce makes the dish and would be good on other things, maybe for marinating some chicken?

Fish With Lime Sauce