Recipe - Pan Fry White Snapper Fillet With Thai Chilli Sauce

The white snapper fish is native to the Pacific and Indian oceans. It lives among the reefs in schools (link).  It is a lean fish with mild flavour.

In this recipe, I use the white snapper fillet which I bought frozen.

It is quite easy to pan fry the fish fillet. In normal pan fry, I would just season the fillet with a bit of salt and pepper and flavour with lemon juice after it is pan fried. It is tasty and delicious on its own.

In this recipe, I make a Thai chilli sauce as a topping for the fish. This will give the fish a sweet, sour and salty taste.

For this recipe, I thaw the fish, pat dry and season lightly with pepper. No salt is added as I am making a sauce for topping.


Ingredients (serves 3)

pan fry snapper

3 white snapper fillet, about 100 gms each
Dash of pepper
3 tbs of cooking oil

Thai Chilli Sauce

Half cup water
2 tbs lime juice (vinegar or tamarind juice)
1 tsp sugar
1 tbs light soy or fish sauce
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 small red chillis (chilli padi), chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1 sprig of coriander leaves for garnishing

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Method

Pat dry the snapper fillet with paper towel
Season with a dash of pepper on the flesh side.
Sprinkle with corn flour on both sides and shake off excess.

In a pan or skillet, heat the oil till hot but not smoking.
Place the fillet in the pan flesh side side down.
(A good practice is to place the presentation side down first)
Cook until golden, about 3 minutes.

Turn the fish over and cooked for 3 more minutes.
The fish should be done.

Plate the fish and put aside.

In the same pan, pour in the thai chilli sauce ingredients and cooked until mixture boils.
Reduce heat and let simmer for a minute to release flavour.
Add more water if necessary.

Pour sauce over the fish or on the side as you wish.

Serve and enjoy !

 



A nice 15 minute video on pan fry fish fillet with sweet and sour sauce




This 5 minute video shows a whole fried fish with Thai chilli sauce, in Thai





Another way of pan fry fish fillet with dijon mustard and ginger and other condiments.