Steamed Curried Fish

This steamed curried fish or commonly known in Thai as ‘Hor mok’  is an elegant recipe full of rich flavors that represent all that I love about Thai food. This heavenly combination of fish, red curry paste, kaffir lime leaves, sugar and coconut cream is one of my all time favorites. Traditionally, haw mok comes in a banana leaf folded into the shape of a bowl.  You can find frozen banana leaves at many Asian stores.  When banana leaves are not available, I use small ramekins instead.

Note: The most popular haw mok are made with fish or crab but you’ll also find other meats as well. Fish like trout, tilapia, salmon or haddock tastes wonderful in this dish.

Ingredients:

Approx 500 grams of fish
2 cups coconut milk
1 egg
1 shredded red chili
Coriander leaf
Sweet basil leaf
Shredded kaffir lime leaf
2 tbsp rice flour
3 tbsp fish sauce
Red curry paste

1. Cut the fish into thin slices.
2. Pour ½ cup of the coconut milk into a pot, add rice flour and stir until dissolved. Simmer over low heat until done, remove from the heat and set aside as the topping.
3. Add the red curry paste to 1 cup of coconut milk in a mixing bowl, add the fish slices and stir well. Add the remaining coconut milk a little at a time while stirring until all the coconut milk is used up. Keep stirring, then add basil leaf, coriander, kaffir lime leaf into the mix. 
4. If using ramekin as the vessel, line the ramekin with the basil leaves, fill each cup full with the mixture and steam over boiling water on high heat for 15 minutes. 
5. Remove the steamer from the heat, top each ramekin with a spoon of the prepared coconut cream, scatter coriander, kaffir lime leaves and chilli on top, then return to heat. Continue steaming for 1 minute and remove from the steamer.