Coconut Poached Wild Caught Barramundi, Chili Spiced Pumpkin & Cucumber
Easy
Prep 20 min Cook 20 min
(Gluten Free / Dairy Free / Low Carb)
This recipe for Coconut-poached Wild Caught Barramundi with a Chili Spiced Pumpkin and Cucumber salad is just delicious. Cooking and sourcing sustainable seafood is now becoming the norm and a practice I encourage you to get really passionate about. I use wild-caught barramundi from North Queensland but if you can’t get hold of sustainably sourced do your best to come as close as you can to ethically seafood. I adore the Asian flavours in this recipe as they give such a subtle depth to the fish.
I love the whole idea of poaching in coconut, its such a gentle way of cooking and produces a moist flavoursome fish. If you are not a fan of fish, you could certainly substitute the fish for an equivalent amount of prawns, scallops, calamari – just watch your poaching times. If you prefer chicken, poaching in the coconut milk is a great way to ensure the breast meat stays moist, I would recommend butterflying the chicken breast or slicing it into smaller pieces as mentioned in the recipe. For vegans and vegetarian’s tofu and an array of vegetables makes the perfect substitute.
You can also pick up in your local supermarket vegan fish sauce or use Liquid Aminos which like a soy/fish sauce and completely vegan.
Ingredients
Poached Coconut Fish
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 2cm piece, ginger finely sliced or grated
- 1 tsp each ground coriander, ground cumin and chilli flakes
- Enough coconut milk to come up halfway up the barramundi
- 5 kaffir lime leaves, coarsely torn
- 1 lemongrass stalk (white part only), thinly sliced
- 700 gm skinless Wild caught barramundi fillet, cut into 10cm pieces
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp palm sugar
Spiced Cucumber, Herb and Pumpkin Salad
- 1 kaffir lime leaf, thinly sliced
- 1 tsp finely chopped lemongrass
- 1½ tbsp fish sauce
- 1½ tbsp lime juice
- 1 tsp of tamarind paste mixed with 1 tblsp of water
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1½ tsp finely grated palm sugar, or to taste
- 5 Eshallots/Spring onions, thinly sliced
- 1 small Spanish onion, thinly sliced
- 1 cup each coriander and mint
- 2 red Thai chillies thinly sliced
- 1 telegraph cucumber, sliced thinly
- 300g diced roast pumpkin
- To Serve
- Toasted sesame seeds
Recipe Steps
- Heat coconut oil in a wok or deep fry pan over medium-high heat, add ginger and ground spices and stir-fry until fragrant (20-30 seconds). Add coconut milk, lime leaves and lemongrass and bring to a simmer.
- Add the pieces of barramundi and cook until tender 3-4 minutes, then flip over using a spatula and poached for another 3-4 minutes. Gently remove the fish and set aside covered. Season the coconut broth with fish sauce and palm sugar.
- Stir and bring back to a simmer , reduce until the sauce coats the back of the spoon. To serve, place the pieces of fish into a shallow bowl, pour over the sauce and top with the pumpkin and cucumber salad.
For the salad.
- In a small frying pan, heat the sesame oil, add lime leaf, lemongrass, shallots, sauté until fragrant. Combine fish sauce, lime juice, tamarind water, thinly sliced red chili and palm sugar in a small bowl, mix well and reserve. Place all the other ingredients, herbs, and half the dressing in a mixing bowl, toss together, then serve with your choice of rice or noodles. Top with sesame seeds.