Salty, sweet, sour and hot - these are the essentials flavours for Rick’s sea bass with a hot and sour sauce recipe. Inspired by Thai and Vietnamese dishes, why not have a go and discover how easy it is to recreate in your own kitchen.
4 sea bass fillets
Sunflower oil, for frying
25g garlic, thinly sliced
2cm knob of ginger, sliced
2 red bird’s eye chillies, thinly sliced
2 tsp tamarind paste
50g palm sugar
75ml fish sauce
Small bunch of coriander, finely chopped
Serve with steamed bok choi and Thai jasmine rice
Heat sunflower oil in a frying pan and add the sliced garlic. Allow to caramelise and add the ginger to soften.
After a few minutes add the sliced chilli and fry. Stir in the tamarind paste and palm sugar and allow to heat through before adding the fish sauce and removing from the heat.
Don’t be tempted to add extra salt – the fish sauce provides plenty of salt to the dish.
For the sea bass, add ½ cm of the oil to a frying pan and heat before adding the sea bass fillets skin side down. The oil needs to be at a high temperature to ensure the fish skin goes crispy. Season with a grind of pepper.
When the flesh of the skin is almost all white, flip the fillets over and allow to fry for another 30 second or so.
Plate up and sprinkle some fresh coriander on top.
