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Pan-fried sea bream with three-flavoured sauce (Pla Sam Rot) is a Thai dish of pan-fried fish served with three-flavoured sauce. The fish is lightly coated with cornstarch and pan-fried to create a light, crispy and golden skin. It is then served with a sweet, sour and spicy sauce (the three-flavoured sauce). Sea bream is a good choice as it has a delicate texture and a high fat content which lends itself very well to frying. But you can also use sea bass, snapper or other white fish.
Ingredients
- 750g sea bream, scaled and cleaned
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 4 coriander roots
- 2 long red chillies and 1 birdeye chilli, deseeded
- 4 garlic cloves
- 3 shallots
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 90g palm sugar
- 2 tbsp tamarind water (made from 30g tamarind pulp soaked in 60ml boiling water for 20 minutes, pushed through a sieve to extract the juice)
- 1-2 tbsp cornstarch for coating the fish
- A handful of coriander leaves
- A handful of finely shredded spring onion, long red chillies and kaffir lime leaves
Instructions
- Marinate the fish with 1 tbsp of the fish sauce for 15 minutes.
- Pound the coriander roots, chillies, garlic and shallots in a mortar with a pestle until you have a fine paste. (Or use a food processor, although this is not preferred.) Stir fry the paste in hot oil until fragrant. Add palm sugar and 2 tbsp water, and cook until caramelised. Add tamarind water and the remaining 1 tbsp fish sauce. Heat the sauce a little until it becomes syrupy. Adjust seasoning with salt as needed.
- Coat the fish lightly with cornstarch. Pan fry the fish in plenty of oil for 10 mins (5 mins on each side) until golden brown and crispy. Transfer the fish to a plate. Pour the sauce on top of the fish. Garnish with coriander leaves, finely shredded spring onion, chillies and kaffir lime leaves.
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