Coral trout, jungle butter and tiger prawns

This recipe features the underrated coral trout - a premium Australian reef fish with a firm, moist flesh and a clean sweet flavour that is prized by chefs. Often overlooked by home cooks, this one is well worth seeking out! This recipe pairs coral trout fillets with a punchy, South-east Asian inspired jungle butter packed with aromatic lemongrass, curry leaves, turmeric, garlic and coriander.

• serves

  4

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  15 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

Series. Cooking. Rated PG.

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The Cook Up with Adam Liaw

series • CookingPG

Ingredients

• 3 g caster sugar
• 7 g good-quality fish sauce
• 300 g coral trout fillet, skin-off
• 120 g tiger prawn meat, roughly chopped
• 1 finger lime
• 30 g green mango, falang variety, thinly julienned
• 5 g betel leaves, deep fried
• 10 g carambola (star fruit), unripe, very thinly sliced
• 1 g makrut lime leaf, thinly julienned

For the jungle butter (makes extra)

• 20 g lemongrass, finely chopped
• 1 g makrut lime leaf, torn
• 1 g curry leaves
• 5 g betel leaves
• 8 g sawtooth coriander
• 18 g ginger, finely minced
• 18 g galangal, finely minced
• 8 g turmeric, finely minced
• 24 g garlic, finely minced
• 16 g coriander root, finely minced
• 9 g dried shrimp
• 50 g purple shallot, finely minced
• 1 g small hot Thai chilli
• 55 g water
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 200 g butter
• 2 g salt
• 1 g ground white pepper
• 18 g good-quality honey
• 20 g fish sauce
• 64 g tamarind pulp soaked in 150 g water

Resting time: 5 minutes

Marinating time: 10 minutes

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, combine the sugar and fish sauce, mixing to dissolve the sugar, then add the fish fillets and mix to combine. Leave at room temperature until needed.
2. To make the jungle butter, combine the lemongrass, makrut lime leaf, curry leaves, betel leaves, sawtooth coriander, ginger, galangal, turmeric, garlic, coriander root, dried shrimp, shallot, chilli and water in a high-speed blender and blitz until smooth and bright green.
3. Heat the vegetable oil in a large saucepan, then add half the jungle butter (you can freeze the remaining for another time) from the blender and cook, stirring, until fragrant and tacky. Add the butter and stir until melted, then remove from the heat. Season with the salt, white pepper, honey, fish sauce and tamarind water, stirring until combined.
4. Steam the coral trout on a plate for 5 minutes, or until just cooked, then remove from the heat.
5. Return the cooked jungle butter to the heat. Stir through the prawns and cook for 2-3 minutes, or until the prawns are just cooked through.
6. Spoon the jungle butter and prawns onto a serving dish and squeeze over the finger lime. Elegantly plate the green mango, fried betel leaves, carambola and makrut lime leaf threads over the warmed jungle butter and cooked tiger prawn and then carefully lay over the fillet of steamed coral trout.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.