Today's feature is a delicious fish dish called "Pla Neung Manao" which is an all-round winner.
It ticks all the right boxes:
- Low fat
- Tasty
- Easy to prepare
- Inexpensive
- Light
Pla Neung Manao is steamed whole fish with a lime dressing.
It's one of Thailand's most requested fish dishes and is normally served over a portable furnace of smoking embers in a fish shaped metal dish.
That isn't essential, and you can just as easily serve it on an oval plate or bowl.
The idea of the deep fish dish is that you pour the 'soup' style sauce over it and it bubbles away staying warm while you eat it. It looks like the dish is designed for cooking the fish in.
It's actually a "smoke and mirrors" show. A total myth. The fish is fully cooked before it goes in.
Lies, and a little about the war
Your server undertakes the ritual of delivering the fish to your table, heat emanating from the glowing charcoal beneath.
The lime sauce shimmers as it approaches simmer point just before reaching you, giving the illusion that it's cooking the fish in the sauce, including the top which isn't even in the sauce.
The lime sauce shimmers as it approaches simmer point just before reaching you, giving the illusion that it's cooking the fish in the sauce, including the top which isn't even in the sauce.
Succumbing to the romance of this concept is quick and easy.
Your challenge is quickly devouring every skerrick of thick flesh from the main bones, fighting your dining companion in a strategic war of wits.
The object is to leave them the fish belly and 'wings' to pick at while you sit, replete, focusing on beer, wine, rice or other dishes.
These parts of the fish are harder to pull the meat off without ending up with fine bones or the occasional scale between the teeth, but it tastes so good, it shouldn't be wasted.
The object is to leave them the fish belly and 'wings' to pick at while you sit, replete, focusing on beer, wine, rice or other dishes.
These parts of the fish are harder to pull the meat off without ending up with fine bones or the occasional scale between the teeth, but it tastes so good, it shouldn't be wasted.
Eventually a winner emerges for side 1, and an unsteady peace prevails.
At this point both sides must come together in a spirit of co-operation in order to gain access to the meat on the other side. This involves turning the fish without breaking it or dropping it, an act that has potential to release a tsunami of scalding lime garlic and chilli broth.
There's an art to turning pla neung manao.
It strikes a balance between the nonchalant flip and sleight of hand.
All dining utensils are used to lift and turn the poor sea creature – a matrix-style stop-motion extravaganza that tests the very boundaries of human logistics. Once turned, the feast begins again in earnest.
It strikes a balance between the nonchalant flip and sleight of hand.
All dining utensils are used to lift and turn the poor sea creature – a matrix-style stop-motion extravaganza that tests the very boundaries of human logistics. Once turned, the feast begins again in earnest.
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Basic Equipment – or not
This is so easy to make – you need:
- 1 whole fish, a dish,
- a steamer of some sort and
- a saucepan to make the sauce.
Microwave method
Actually, I lie. The steamer and fish dish is needed to do it in the classic style.
An Exec Chef friend in Thailand fed me a nice pla neung manao which his local Thai staff made from fresh boneless sea bass fillet, cooked in a microwave, then stacked neatly in a bowl plate and dressed with the sauce.
Sacrilege? But it tasted great.
Normally fillet is never used for this dish as it dries out, or gets watery, or loses flavour.
That happens if you poach or steam fillet.
That happens if you poach or steam fillet.
When cling-wrapped and gently pulsed until just cooked, the microwave cooks the fish without losing taste or drying out.
The fish normally used in Thailand are Sea Bass or Grouper – plate sized. Also barracuda.
Sea bass here is also called white snapper, and it's actually the same fish as Australia's famous Barramundi. It has delicious soft white flesh.
Grouper is also excellent, but you can use any white fleshed ocean fish.
Pla Neung Manao recipe
1 ea whole fish 700g-1kg, scaled & gutted (sea bass, barramundi, grouper, red snapper, coral trout)
Sauce
120ml Freshly squeezed lime juice 1/2 cup
60ml Fish sauce 3 tbsp
40g Garlic 2 tbsp
25g Chilli 1-2 tbsp
250ml Chicken stock 1 cup
15g Coriander sprigs + 15g root(1/2 cup + 2 tbsp root)
2ea Fresh green seedless limes
1-2ea Lemongrass sticks (bruised, then twisted)
Method
- Slash the fish several times on each side so the meat cooks evenly
- Slice the 2 limes
- Stuff fish belly cavity with lemongrass, half the coriander root and some lime slices
- Top fish with some lime slices, and rest on a couple more lime slices in the steamer
- Steam for 7-12 minutes or until fish is cooked through at the thickest part.
- While the fish is steaming, make the sauce
Sauce Method
- Chop the fresh garlic, cleaned coriander root and the chillies (chillies to taste. depending on their heat & your tolerance)
- Mix chilli, garlic & coriander root with the fresh lime juice and the fish sauce.
- Heat chicken stock, but do not boil.
- Add to the lime juice & chilli mix.
- Taste and adjust to be sour and spicy with a hint of saltiness.
- Remove fish from the steamer when cooked, put into fish dish, pour the sauce over, and garnish with fresh coriander sprigs.
Hi,
Thanks alot for the recipe. But I'm confused whether to pour the sauce of lime juice + chilli etc. AFTER or BEFORE steaming the fish? As some other recipes suggest to pour before steaming. If we pour after steaming, can the fish absorb the taste of the sauce?
Cld you kindly advise?
Thank you
Hi Ann, pour the sauce on after steaming.
It’s quite flavoursome. It won’t absorb the flavour but it will taste perfect and complement the fish.
Steam with some lemongrass and aromats.
Enjoy. Sorry about the delay in replying