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17 recipes

Choo chee pla (fish in thick red curry)

Riverside restaurants along the Chao Phraya, from Nonthaburi down to Samut Prakan, serve choo chee as a centrepiece for shared dinners: a crisp-fried fish smothered in a sauce so reduced it barely moves, red with curry paste, rich with coconut cream and scattered with threads of kaffir lime leaf. The name copies the sizzle of paste hitting hot cream. It is sweeter and thicker than a soupy gaeng phet, so serve plenty of jasmine rice and a clear soup or plain vegetables alongside. Chef's tip: fry the fish only after the sauce is ready and pour it over at the table; fish left to sit in the sauce goes soggy within minutes.

40 min

Thai Fish

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Pla pao (salt-crusted grilled fish)

Walk through any night market from Chiang Mai to Hat Yai and you will see rows of whole fish, white with crusted salt, grilling slowly over charcoal with lemongrass stalks poking out of their bellies. The salt shell keeps the flesh steaming in its own juice, so it comes out moist, clean-tasting and scented with lemongrass and pandan. People peel back the skin and eat the fish wrapped in lettuce with rice noodles, herbs and a fierce lime and chilli dip. Chef's tip: pat the fish completely dry before salting; a wet fish lets the crust slide off in the first five minutes.

55 min

Thai Fish

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Pla neung manao (steamed fish in lime and chilli)Steamed fish with lime and chilli

Restaurants all over Bangkok bring this dish to the table in a fish-shaped steamer with a flame underneath, the fish swimming in a broth of garlic, chilli, lime and fish sauce that keeps bubbling as you eat. Sea bass (pla kapong) is the usual choice. It is clean, sour and very garlicky, ideal for a light dinner with rice and a plate of greens. A whole fish is traditional; two thick fillets work just as well and steam faster. Chef's tip: pour the sauce over at the end, not before steaming; lime cooked for 15 minutes loses its freshness and turns bitter.

35 min

Thai Fish

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Yam talay (Thai seafood salad)

Beach shacks on Koh Samet and along the Pattaya coast bring yam talay out in a heap, the seafood still warm, glistening with lime and fish sauce, and scattered with Chinese celery and onion. It is light and very sour, eaten with ice-cold drinks before the grilled fish arrives, or with rice for lunch. Use whatever is freshest; the mix below is easy to find. Chef's tip: poach each type of seafood separately and briefly; tipping everything in together overcooks the squid into rubber bands before the mussels open.

25 min

Thai Fish

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Escabeche de pescadoFried fish in sweet-sour onion sauce

In Lima, escabeche de pescado belongs to the criollo kitchen of the old city: it turns up on Friday lunch menus, on buffet tables, and above all in Lent and Holy Week, when families eat fish and this dish can be made the day before. Fish is fried until golden, then covered in a warm sauce of thick-cut red onion softened in oil with garlic, ají amarillo, ají panca, cumin and vinegar, and left to cool so the flavours soak in. It is served cold or at room temperature with boiled sweet potato, hard-boiled egg and purple botija olives. It tastes tangy, sweet and gently fruity-hot, with crunchy onion over tender fish. The fish here is fully cooked, but because it is a cold seafood dish, pregnant people, babies, older people and anyone with weak immunity should eat it well chilled and within 2 days. Common mistake: stewing the onions until limp; they should only lose their raw bite. It is ready when the sauce has soaked a little into the fish and smells of vinegar and toasted chilli. Chef's tip: use thick fillets of corvina or bonito; thin fillets break under the sauce.

50 min

Peruvian Fish

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Paiche a la parrillaGrilled paiche steaks

Paiche (arapaima), one of the largest freshwater fish on earth, has thick, white, almost boneless flesh, and in Iquitos it is farmed and cut into meaty steaks that sizzle on the grills of riverside restaurants. Marinated briefly in garlic, lime, cumin and achiote, it chars on the outside and stays juicy and mild inside, a little like cod but firmer. Serve it with a tomato and onion salad, rice, or tacacho (mashed fried plantain balls). Frozen farmed paiche is sold in some fishmongers; thick cod, halibut or hake loin are good stand-ins. Leaving it in lime too long is the big mistake: the acid starts to 'cook' the surface and it sticks and tears on the grill, so 15 minutes is plenty. Chef's tip: oil the fish, not the grill, and don't move it for the first 3 minutes so it forms a crust and releases cleanly.

25 min

Peruvian Fish

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PatarashcaLeaf-wrapped grilled fish

Wrapping fish in leaves and cooking it over embers is how the riverside towns of Loreto and San Martín have always cooked their catch, and in Iquitos patarashca is sold on Belén market grills and in the restaurants along the Malecón. A whole fish or thick fillet is smeared with garlic, ají dulce, tomato, onion, cumin and sacha culantro, folded in large bijao leaves and grilled until the parcel chars and the fish steams in its own juices. When you open it, the flesh is soft and fragrant with herbs. Banana leaves from Asian shops are the best swap for bijao; foil works at a pinch. Too thin a parcel is the usual mistake: the leaves burn through and the fish dries out, so use two layers. Chef's tip: serve it in the opened leaf with boiled plantain or cassava and spoon up every drop of the juices.

45 min

Peruvian Fish

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Trucha fritaFried trout with potatoes and rice

Rainbow trout farmed in the cold, clear water of Lake Titicaca is what you eat in Puno, at lakeside restaurants and on the floating islands: a whole fish, dusted in flour and fried until the skin crackles, with boiled Andean potatoes, rice, a simple salad and lime. The flesh is pink-white, sweet and moist; nothing else is needed. Ask your fishmonger to gut and scale the trout. The most common mistake is moving the fish too early, which tears the skin; leave it until it releases from the pan by itself. Chef's tip: slash the thick part of each side twice before flouring, so the fish cooks evenly and the skin crisps right up to the head.

30 min

Peruvian Fish

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Choros a la chalacaCold mussels with corn salsa

Named for the people of Callao, Lima's port, choros a la chalaca are what you order with friends at a seafront cevichería on a hot afternoon: steamed mussels, chilled, each on its half shell under a bright, wet salsa of red onion, tomato, Andean corn, rocoto and lime. Cool, sweet, briny and sharp, they are eaten with your fingers in two bites, often before a ceviche or a jalea. Here the mussels are fully steamed open first, so nothing is served raw. People often overcook them while waiting for the last stubborn shells, which leaves the rest rubbery; lift them out as soon as each one opens. Chef's tip: dress the salsa no more than 15 minutes ahead, and spoon a little of the juice onto every mussel; that juice is the whole point of the dish.

30 min

Peruvian Fish

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Jalea mixtaMixed fried seafood with cassava

Ordered to share at a Lima cevichería on a Sunday, jalea mixta arrives as a tall golden pile: chunks of white fish, squid rings and prawns, all in a light, crackly coat, on top of fried cassava and buried under a fresh tangle of salsa criolla. The contrast is the point, hot and crunchy underneath, cold, sour and sharp on top, with tartar sauce or ají on the side and cold drinks all round. A frequent mistake is crowding the oil, which drops its temperature and gives you a soggy, greasy coat; fry in small batches and let the oil come back up between them. Chef's tip: boil the cassava first and let it steam dry before frying; it turns fluffy inside and shatteringly crisp outside.

45 min

Peruvian Fish

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MajariscoPlantain mash with seafood

Its name blends 'majado' (mashed plantain) and 'marisco' (seafood), and along the coast of Piura and Tumbes, near the Ecuadorian border, it's what cevicherías and beach restaurants serve when you want something hot and filling. Mashed green plantain is folded into a sauce of garlic, onion, ají and seafood juices, with prawns, squid and mussels running through it, so every forkful is creamy, garlicky and briny. Serve it with lime and salsa criolla. Mussels must be alive: tap any open ones and discard those that don't close, and discard any that stay shut after cooking. Overcooking the seafood is the most frequent mistake; it goes in at the end, just until pink and opaque. Chef's tip: keep the mussel cooking liquid and use it to loosen the mash; it's pure seafood flavour.

55 min

Peruvian Fish

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Maki acevichadoPrawn tempura rolls with ceviche sauce

Lima's Nikkei sushi bars invented the acevichado and it has become the roll every Peruvian orders: prawn tempura and avocado rolled in rice, topped with thin slices of fish and drenched in a creamy, lime-sharp sauce built from leche de tigre, ají amarillo and mayonnaise. Crisp, warm, cold and tangy in one bite, it is party food and Friday-night takeaway alike. For a safer topping, use sashimi-grade fish frozen at −20 °C for 24 hours first, keep it cold and eat the rolls at once; you can also sear the slices with a blowtorch or use cooked prawns instead. Even so, the raw-fish topping is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Overfilling is the usual mistake: the roll won't close and the rice splits. Chef's tip: use a pasteurised-egg mayonnaise and wet your hands with vinegared water so the rice doesn't stick.

90 min

Peruvian Fish

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Thimpu de carachiPoached fish with potatoes

Around the shores of Lake Titicaca, thimpu is weekday food and Lent food alike: carachi, a small native lake fish, laid over potatoes and chuño (freeze-dried Andean potato) and gently poached, then drenched at the table with a hot sauce of onion fried with ají. The fish is soft and delicate, the chuño earthy and pleasantly chewy, and the sauce brings colour and fire. Outside Puno, small whole trout, tilapia or perch, or thick trout fillets, work well. Chuño needs an overnight soak (plan for it) and is sold in Andean and Latin shops; swap in extra waxy potatoes if you can't find it. The trap here is boiling the fish hard so it falls apart; keep the water at a bare shiver. Chef's tip: make the sauce while the fish poaches and spoon it on boiling hot, so it sizzles over the plate.

60 min

Peruvian Fish

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TiraditoSliced fish in ají amarillo sauce

Lima's Japanese-Peruvian cooks turned ceviche on its head with tiradito: instead of cubes soaked in lime, the fish is cut thin like sashimi, laid flat and dressed at the last minute, so it stays silky with only the surface turning white. The sauce here is the classic golden one, ají amarillo blended with lime, garlic and ginger, fruity and medium hot. It is served as a starter in cevicherías and upmarket Miraflores restaurants with boiled sweet potato and corn. Because the fish is eaten almost raw, this version uses sashimi-grade fish frozen at −20 °C for 24 hours first (allow for that), kept cold and eaten the moment it is dressed; it is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. The mistake people make is dressing it ahead: after ten minutes the lime cooks it through and it turns chalky. Chef's tip: chill the plates in the freezer for 10 minutes before you lay out the fish; it keeps the slices firm while you work.

20 min

Peruvian Fish

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Pulpo al olivoOctopus with olive mayonnaise

Created in Lima in the 1950s by a Japanese-Peruvian chef, pulpo al olivo is now a fixture of Nikkei restaurants and smart cevicherías: paper-thin rounds of tender, cold octopus covered with a smooth violet mayonnaise of Botija olives, the big, dark, fruity olives of the southern coast. It is cool, rich and briny, eaten as a starter with lime and a drizzle of olive oil. Allow 1 hour for chilling after cooking. Tough octopus is the usual let-down, and the fix is simple: use frozen octopus (freezing tenderises it) and simmer gently, never at a rolling boil. Because the sauce is an egg emulsion, make it with a pasteurised egg, or use a good ready-made mayonnaise. Chef's tip: slice the octopus while it's cold and firm; warm octopus slices raggedly.

85 min

Peruvian Fish

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Pla rad prikFried fish with chilli sauce

A whole fried fish blanketed in glossy red chilli sauce is the centrepiece of many family celebrations and riverside restaurant meals in central Thailand. The sauce is known as sam rot, 'three flavours', because palm sugar, tamarind and fish sauce are balanced against pounded chillies and garlic; spooned over a fish fried until its skin crackles and the fins crunch like crisps, it turns sticky and shiny. Sea bass (pla kapong) is the usual choice, though snapper or tilapia work well too. Bring it to the table with jasmine rice, a stir-fried green vegetable and a clear soup to share. Chef's tip: score the fish down to the bone on both sides and pat it bone-dry, so the heat reaches the thickest part and the oil doesn't spit.

45 min

Thai Fish

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Pla kapong tod nam plaFried sea bass with fish sauce

Seafood restaurants on the jetties of Krabi, Trang and Hua Hin bring this out whole on a long platter, its scored sides fanned open and crackling, as the centrepiece of a shared table. The skin and fins fry so crisp you can eat them, while the flesh inside stays moist and sweet; a sticky glaze of fish sauce and palm sugar goes over at the last minute. It is salty-sweet rather than spicy, so it sits happily beside a sour green mango salad, a hot curry and plenty of jasmine rice. Chef's tip: dry the fish thoroughly with kitchen paper, inside the cuts too, and leave it uncovered in the fridge for 30 minutes if you can; dry skin is crisp skin and spits far less.

40 min

Thai Fish

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