Thai-style Salt Baked Fish (Pla Pao Glua)
Miss travelling and the food in Bangkok? Find out how to prepare and serve your own Thai-style Salt Baked Fish at home.
Servings: 4 pax
Cost: SGD $15
Ingredients
- 2 x 500 g Tilapia, Seabass or Snakehead gutted, with scales
- 2 stalks lemongrass crushed
- 4 pieces kaffir lime leaves bruised
Salt crust
- 1 1/2 cup coarse salt
- 2 tbsp flour
- 2 - 3 tbsp water
Dipping sauce
- 15 cloves garlic
- 5 to 20 pieces bird chilies
- 6 tbsp fresh lime juice
- 3 tbsp water
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 170°
- Wash the fish thoroughly inside and out and then pat dry with kitchen towels.
- Roughly crush the lemongrass with back of knife and bruise kaffir lime leaves with hands. Stuff herbs, 1 lemongrass and 2 kaffir lime leaves each, within the fish cavity.
- Mix salt and flour together, Then add 2 to 3 tablespoons of water and mix thoroughly until it's just a little moist.
- Pat and rub the fish with salt mixture, making sure to cover the whole fish.
- Place directly on wire rack. Bake in oven at 170° for 30 to 40 minutes
- To prepare dipping sauce, blend or chop garlic and bird chilies until fine. Add the rest of the dipping sauce ingredients and mix well.
- After fish is done, peel and lift skin to one side. Serve together with dipping sauce.
Video
Notes
- Ask the fishmonger to remove the guts but do not scale the fish.
- Only use coarse salt, as fine table salt does not bind properly into salt crust. Adding flour to the salt helps it to bind and form the crust.
- Salt crust may drop off with a little fish juice while baking. Do line the bottom of the oven with foil to help with cleaning.
- I don't recommend leaving the fish for more than an hour after cooking, as the fish will absorb the salt and become salty and dry.