My 5 years old is a vey picky eater but one thing she loves is any Fish preparation. On a busy weekday night if I want the dinner to be done without any drama or fuss, cooking fish is the only way out. Today was such busy hump day and we picked fresh catfish fillet on the way home in the evening. I decided to make a grilled fish with a little thai touch today.

You need about 15 mins of preparation and 15 mins of actual cooking. 30 mins and dinner is served!

Soak 1-2 dry red chillies in warm water for 10 mins. Remove the seeds. We in our household cannot handle spice very well. You can actually make this without red chillies most of the times.

Grind together 1 small shallot (if you happen to have, else small red onion will work just fine) , peel of one organic lime,6-7 garlic pods, roasted cumin seeds, roasted coriander seeds, 5-6 peppercorns, 2 spoons of palm sugar ( if you don’t have this use brown sugar) , Juice of 1 lime, 2 spoons of tomato paste (NO! Puree WILL NOT WORK! 🙂 ), 2-3 tender stocks of lemongrass , 2 inch piece of galangal and the soaked red chillies. Try to use as little water as possible. 

In a shallow pan heat 1 spoon of oil. When the oil is hot add the above paste and cook just when you see oil separating. Set aside to cool.

I normally use Catfish, Tilapia or Halibut fish for this preparation.

Clean and pat dry the fish. Mix the ground paste and 1/2 cup coconut milk ( Fresh or canned. Both should work well).  Coat the fish with the mixture and keep for 5 mins. Heat the grill. Once it is hot add sliced lemons on the grill. Let the lemons roast for 1-2 minutes. Once you see the lemon juices flowing on the grill add fish to the grill. Add capers on the fish and let it cook on both sides 5 minutes each. The juice from grilled lemons adds a little kick to the taste.

As the fish starts to caramelize and ooze the marinade add roughly chopped garlic pods on the grill. At the end coarsely grind these garlic pods and capers for a spicy side with the fish.

This texture of fish in this particular preparation is not going to be crispy but it would be similar to poached or steamed soft fish. Serve with plain white rice or just as an appetizer.