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Luke Nguyen's Greater Mekong recipes

Steamed fish in banana leaf recipe

Created by Luke Nguyen

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Cuisine: Lao

Ingredients

2 tbsp uncooked glutinous rice
3 lemongrass stems, white part only, sliced
4 small red chillies, sliced
1 red Asian shallot, chopped
1 handful chopped dill
1 handful chopped basil, with fowers if possible
6 spring onions (scallions), sliced
1 tsp padek (Laotian fermented fish sauce) or mam nem (Vietnamese fermented anchovy sauce)
4 makrut (kaffir lime) leaves, torn
2 x 200g telopia or snapper fillets, bones removed
4 banana leaves, cut into four 30cm (12 inch) squares
Sticky rice, to serve

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Preparation

Soak the rice for 20 minutes in a small bowl of water. Strain the rice, then tip into a large mortar. Pound with a pestle until it becomes a sticky paste. Add the lemongrass, chilli and shallot and pound again. Add the dill, basil and spring onion and pound again. Add a pinch of sea salt, 1 tablespoon water, the padek orlmam nem and the lime leaves. Cut the fish into 2.5 cm (1 inch) pieces and add them to the mortar. Mix together with a large spoon. Soften the banana leaves, either over a gas fire, in a hot frying pan, or by steaming or microwaving them for a few minutes.

Lay two banana leaves on the bench, at diagonals to one another. Place half the fish mixture in the centre, bring the corners together and enclose the corners to form a pyramid. Pin the edges together with toothpicks to secure the filling. Repeat with the remaining ingredients to make a second parcel.

Half fill a steamer, wok or large saucepan with water and bring to a rapid boil over high heat. Place the parcels in the steamer, fat side down, and steam for 20 minutes. Serve hot, with sticky rice.

If you enjoyed this Steamed fish in banana leaf recipe then browse more Lao recipes, seafood recipes, nut-free recipes, egg-free recipes, healthy recipes and our most popular hainanese chicken rice recipe.

Lao Restaurants

Displaying 8 of 8 Lao Restaurants.

	Restaurant	Book Online	Suburb
1.	Yim Yam		Yarraville
2.	Twelve Spices		Canley Heights
3.	Tamnak Thai		Goulburn
4.	Suan I-San Restaurant		Newtown
5.	Baan Latsamy Thai Restaurant		Manuka
6.	Yim Yam, Moonee Ponds		Moonee Ponds
7.	Holy Basil		Canley Heights
8.	Star Lao Thai Restaurant		Fairfield

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Roasting spices

Spices have a much greater kick when roasted and ground just before using. Place them in a small dry frying pan and shake over low heat until just fragrant, then remove from the heat and allow to cool before grinding. Over-roasting spices tends to make them very bitter, so make sure you remove the spices as soon as they yield a toasted aroma.

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Halibut

Flat sea fish available mostly in steaks, fillets and cutlets. It has firm white flesh and best prepared with a sauce.