Macadamia Crusted Sea Bass with Red Curry Sauce

easy but fancy

Category
Dinner
Cuisine
Asian
Serves
4-6
Time
90 minutes
From
Phil Price

curryseafood

This is pretty easy, but quite impressive. Suitable for a dinner party.

I think I originally saw this in the Epicurious magazine, back in the last Millenium when we had printed magazines.

Ingredients

Sea Bass

  • 1 cup roasted macadamia nuts
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 4 6 oz fillets Chilean sea bass
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • salt and pepper

Thai Red Curry Sauce

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 large onion; chopped
  • 1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste
  • 3 cups chicken broth
  • 1 can coconut milk (not light)
  • juice of 1/2 lime
  • 3 garlic cloves; minced
  • 1 teaspoon minced ginger
  • 1/2-1 teaspoon fish sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar (optional, taste first)
  • 10 fresh basil leaves

Instructions

Fish

  1. Preheat oven to 350 °F
  2. Coarsely grind nuts and 1/2 cup flour in food processor, but not too finely.
  3. In bowl, lightly beat egg.
  4. Season fish with salt and pepper.
  5. Dust fillets with flour; dip in egg whites; dip in macadamia nuts.
  6. Chill 1 hour.
  7. Prepare the sauce (see below)
  8. Heat olive oil in skillet. Add sea bass; cook until light brown (about 1-2 minutes) on each side.
  9. Put the fish on a baking sheet and finish in the oven for about 6-8 minutes

Sauce

  1. Optional: put the coconut milk in a saucepan, add some sliced fresh chillies, lightly crushed garlic, sliced ginger and lightly smashed lemongrass stalk. Bring to a boil, then turn off and leave to infuse while the fish is in the fridge. Strain and use in the rest of the recipe.
  2. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in saucepan. Add onion; saute until light brown.
  3. Add the ginger and garlic and saute for about 30 seconds
  4. Add the red curry paste and saute for about a minute
  5. Add broth and coconut milk. Boil 3 minutes.
  6. Reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes;
  7. Add a squeeze of lime juice, nd a dash of fish sauce and sugar and cook for a minute; Add these a carefully because they can overpower the sauce. If you want a little sweetness add a pinch of sugar (I usually leave it out)
  8. Strain the sauce
  9. Spoon sauce onto plates; top with fish.
  10. Chiffonade the basil and sprinkle over the top

Notes

  • Obviously you can use any flaky white fish instead of sea bass. Salmon might work too
  • If you don't have macadamia nuts, you could probably get away with peanuts or cashews, maybe almonds
  • This works well with some couscous or rice, and some asian green beans
  • Want a fancy presentation? Use a ring mould (or cookie cutter) to make a neat circle of rice/couscous. Place some green beans (or similar veggies) on top, then pour some sauce around the rice/couscous. Place the fish carefully on top of the beans and scatter with basil.
  • The optional step of steeping aromatics in the coconut milk really amps up the flavour of the sauce. You can just omit the lemongrass if you don't have it (I have some growing in my garden).