Thai infused fish, brown rice noodles & spirilized cucumber
Happy New Year to you all! Hope you’ve had an enjoyable festive period.
Are you all set for a new year and new adventures? I hope so! There’s no better place to start new adventures then in the kitchen if you ask me 🙂 Asian food is so tasty and every time I cook an asian dish I wonder why I don’t do it more often because the flavours are usually amazing. This Asian dish is not just beautiful but it’s also full of lovely flavours. The lemongrass in the sauce is a delicate flavour that works very well with fish and the crunchy cucumber brings another texture to the dish.
I found this recipe on a food blog called ‘Well-fed soul‘ and I thought I’d try it out (you can find the original recipe here). I wanted to make it ‘tummy friendly’ so I had to change a few ingredients such as the noodles and the garlic. I also choose white fish instead of salmon as in the original recipe. Sometimes I find recipes I want to try but find that they have too many ingredients that my tummy doesn’t agree with.
Sometimes it can be easy to substitute ingredients for more ‘tummy friendly’ alternatives, but sometimes it’s just not possible. I try to choose recipes where I can see it won’t be too hard to substitute ingredients and most of the time it works out well. This time it worked out really well and I can honestly say that this is the best fish dish I’ve had in a long time. I love the thai sauce that you use for the fish and noodles and the spiralized cucumbers really compliment the fish and flavours. It was fairly easy to make too so I would definitely recommend trying it out. It’s a perfect dish to kickstart your new year!
INGREDIENTS
2 tbsp garlic infused olive oil
1 ½ tbsp minced lemon grass
1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
60ml (¼ cup) soya or tamari
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp maple syrup
500g fish filets such as cod, hake or salmon
2 spring onions, finely chopped
salt & pepper to taste
200g brown rice noodles
¼ courgette/zucchini, spiralized
½ cucumber, spiralized
Some fresh basil
Some toasted pine nuts
INSTRUCTIONS
Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat; add 1 tbsp garlic infused olive oil. Add the lemongrass, ginger; saute 1 minute until fragrant, then remove from heat and transfer to a small bowl. Whisk in the soya (or tamari), rice vinegar, and maple syrup.
Return the frying pan to medium-high heat and add the remaining 1 tbsp of garlic infused olive oil. Season the fish fillets with salt and pepper, then lightly brush each with 1-2 tbsp.of the lemongrass sauce.
When the frying pan is hot, add the fish, (skin-side down if it has skin); sear until golden, about 3-4 minutes, then flip with tongs and reduce heat to medium. Continue cooking an additional 6-8 minutes or until the fish is cooked through.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil; add the brown rice noodles and cook according to package directions. Cook until noodles are done, then drain and return the noodles to the pot. Add the remaining lemongrass sauce to the noodles, tossing with tongs to coat.
Serve the fish on top of a bed of rice noodles with spiralized cucumber, spring onions, toasted pine nuts, and fresh basil if desired.