Thai Steamed Fish with Lime & Chilli Pla Nung Manao (ปลานึ่งมะนาว)

Forget bland “healthy” dinners — this one’s got bite. Thai steamed fish with lime & chilli Pla Nung Manao (ปลานึ่งมะนาว) is Thailand on a plate: whole fish, gently steamed, swimming in a sharp, spicy, garlicky lime sauce that doubles up as soup. You’ll want to drench your jasmine rice and greens with every last drop.

This is the kind of dish you eat in Bangkok markets: light, fresh, and deceptively simple. The steaming keeps the fish tender and lets the sauce do the heavy lifting — salty from fish sauce, sour from lime, sweet from sugar, heat from chillies.

Thai Steamed Fish w Lime & Chilli

Thai Steamed Fish with Lime & Chilli Recipe

Serves: 2 Difficulty: Easy

Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

Sauce

• 150 ml chicken stock

• Juice of 4 limes

• 1 tbsp fish sauce

• 1.5 tbsp sugar

• 4 Bird’s Eye chillies, chopped

• 4 big garlic cloves, chopped

• A handful of coriander stems, chopped (leaves reserved for garnish)

Fish

• 1 kg whole fish (red grouper, sea bass, or snapper)

• 2 lemongrass stalks, halved and bruised

• ½ lime, thinly sliced

• Salt

To Serve

• Steamed jasmine rice

• Tenderstem broccoli (or any greens you like)
  

Method:

1. Mix all the sauce ingredients (minus the coriander leaves). Stir until the sugar dissolves.

2. Make three cuts across the fish skin. Season with salt, then stuff the cavity with lemongrass and lime slices.

3. Steam the fish until cooked through (15–25 mins depending on size; mine took 17).

4. With 5 minutes left on the fish, gently warm the sauce in a pan. Don’t boil it — just heat enough to pour over.

5. Plate the fish, ladle the hot sauce over it, and finish with fresh coriander leaves.

6. Serve with rice and tenderstem broccoli, then drown everything in that sauce.