Native to Africa, tamarind perfectly compliments the mild sweetness of snapper. This Thai recipe is both delicious and healthy.
Serves 4
100ml fish sauce
100ml tamarind concentrate
100g caster sugar
3 lebanese cucumbers, quartered and thinly sliced
6 shallots, finely sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely chopped
4 long red chillies, finely sliced
½ cup coriander leaves
½ cup mint leaves, roughly chopped
4 whole baby snapper, scaled and scored
2 tbsp canola oil
sea salt, to season
jasmine rice, steamed, to serve
coriander leaves (extra), to serve
lime wedges, to serve
1 Preheat oven to 240C. To make relish, in a large saucepan combine fish sauce, tamarind concentrate and sugar. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes until relish is slightly reduced and glossy. Set aside to cool.
2 In a bowl combine cucumber, shallot, garlic, ginger, chilli, coriander and mint with chilled tamarind relish. Set aside.
3 Brush snapper with oil and season well with salt. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Put snapper on baking tray and bake for 10 minutes or until skin is crispy but flesh is still moist.
To serve, spoon rice onto plates, place snapper on rice and top with relish. Garnish with coriander leaves (extra) and lime wedges.