Fish in Coconut Milk

This recipe is loosely based on memories of fish dishes I cooked when I lived in Brazil. I serve it with rice perfumed with saffron or turmeric, and a green vegetable. I think any firm white fish will do, although salmon makes a richer, more festive dish. I happened to have some Nile Perch in the freezer that was just asking to be cooked (Nile Perch and salmon being the only frozen fish worth buying here), so I cooked it.

First, you make the sauce. When the sauce is cooked, put the fish in a baking pan, cover it with sauce, and bake.The whole thing takes about 20 minutes of preparation. While it’s baking, fix the rice and vegetable. At the end of another half hour, the meal is cooked.

Follow me, gentle reader.

Mimi’s Fish in Coconut Milk

4 generous servings

Ingredients for the sauce:

2 Tblsp. olive oil

1 medium onion

1/2 red bell pepper

3 large cloves of garlic

1 tomato

2 Tblsp. of sliced green olives

1 can of coconut milk

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp. salt

Pepper to taste, freshly-ground if possible.

Method: first preheat the oven to 180 C – 325 F

1. Slice the onion and the bell pepper; chop the tomato. Don’t cut the vegetables into uniform sizes; the finished plate looks more interesting if there is a variety. Chop the garlic.

2. In a deep skillet or a pan, warm the olive oil. Add all the vegetables and the sliced olives. Don’t allow the garlic to brown. You see in the photo that I put the garlic on top of the other vegetables so that it just heats through while they start to cook. After a few minutes, stir it in and cook everything together till the vegetables have softened.

3. Add the coconut milk. When you pour it out, thicker liquid will be on top. Pour till you see watery thin liquid, then stop pouring. Discard the watery stuff or save it for another use (it’s good as part of a smoothie)..

4. Add the lemon juice.

5. Add the salt and pepper. Cook the sauce over a high flame for 10 minutes, stirring once in a while. You want the sauce to reduce and become quite thick. The fish, baking, will contribute its own juices and the sauce will thin out again somewhat in the oven.

Taste the sauce for salt and pepper; add a little more if you like. While it’s cooking, prepare the fish.

Ingredients for the fish

Thick fish fillets: 1.250 1.500 kg.  – 2.75 – 3 lb.

Juice of 1/2 lemon

3 healthy spring onions

…if you have it, two stalks of lemongrass. If you don’t, it’ll still taste delicious.

Method:

If your fish is frozen, rinse it and allow it to soak in water with the lemon juice for 10 minutes. Fresh fish doesn’t need this treatment, nor does fine frozen salmon. The photo of the raw fish was taken when the fillets were sitting in lemon water.

Put it down in a baking pan and cover it with the prepared sauce.

Scissor the spring onions over the surface of the fish. If you have lemongrass, tuck long pieces of the stalk in here and there.

Cover the pan with tin foil, leaving one side open to allow some steam out while the fish is cooking. Bake everything for 30-40 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish. The pieces in the photo needed 40 minutes.

Not necessary, but nice: dry-toast 3 Tblsp. of sesame seeds over a high flame till a nutty aroma rises from the pan. Sprinkle the fish generously with the toasted seeds.

Serve with rice that has been flavored with garlic and saffron or turmeric.

*

Saffron Rice

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup of white rice, rinsed and drained

Olive oil to thinly cover the bottom of the cooking pan

2 large cloves garlic, minced

1 large or 2 medium bay leaves

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. saffron threads or about 3/4 tsp. powdered turmeric

2 cups plus 1 tsp. hot water

Method:

1. Boil the water in a small pot (the extra tsp. is to allow for evaporation in the next step).

2. If using saffron, put it into the water and allow it to simmer for 2 or 3 minutes. Cover the pot and allow the saffron to release its color and flavor into the water while you’re going on with the next steps.

3. Heat the olive oil in the rice pot. Add the bay leaves. If using turmeric, add it now.

4. Stir the garlic in, and add the rice. Allow the rice to heat through and change color slightly, but keep a sharp eye on the garlic so it won’t burn.

5. Add the salt.

6. Pour the hot water over the rice, which will turn yellow immediately. Stir a couple of times.

7. Cover the rice and lower the flame. Steam it for 15 minutes. Let it mellow another 5 or so before serving. For the finished product, see the first photo.