Whole baked Thai snapper with sautéed greens

Sorry little guy!

I wasn't sure whether I'd post this or not. Let's face it, cooking anything that still has its head intact is somewhat gruesome. But like my spatchcock attempt, the idea was to challenge myself. 

I've never cooked or even eaten a fish like this before. I bought it having no idea what to do with it. But that's what the internet is for. 

The fish wasn't scaled so that was a whole new adventure as well. It wasn't particularly difficult, but I'm still finding scales in unusual places in my kitchen. Enough said. 

I decided to cook the fish with some Thai flavours. I'm still learning about Thai cooking, and I'm getting my head around how to combine the salty, sour, sweet and spicy flavours. 

I used slices of fresh lime, garlic, coriander and chilli inside the fish to start. Then I made a kind of dressing to bake the fish in - soy sauce, fish sauce, chilli, palm sugar, garlic, fresh lime juice, and finely chopped coriander stems and roots. 

I cooked my fish with in the sauce on a tray with baking paper. You can also use foil. I actually made this dish again and prefer the foil as it holds the sauce / marinade better. 

Preparing for baking. 

To complement the fish, I sautéed some bok choy and broccolini in sesame oil, lemon juice and toasted sesame seeds.

Fact of the day: in my internet trawling, I learnt that broccolini is actually a hybrid of Chinese broccoli (gai lan) and regular broccoli. (Gai lan is what you get when you order greens at yum cha.)

So anyway... once the fish was baked I plated it up with the veggies, extra coriander and chilli on top and lime wedges on the side. 

It is quite weird eating something that looks like food one minute, then like a creature the next. But people do it all the time, and at least now I've learnt something new. 

Possibly the healthiest meal on this blog.