Thai-style grilled sea bass and aubergine
Serves: 4
Prep time: 20 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Martin Poole
Thai-style grilled sea bass and aubergine
Whole sea bass is grilled to perfection and served with soft aubergine, fresh herbs and a zingy Thai dressing called nam jim jaew. A stunning centrepiece for a barbecue spread
Serves: 4
Prep time: 20 minsTotal time: 
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Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
273Kcal
Fat
14gr
Saturates
3gr
Carbs
13gr
Sugars
6gr
Fibre
5gr
Protein
21gr
Salt
1.2gr
Spencer Lengsfield
Our Senior Food Producer Spencer was born in Los Angeles, so has an inherent love for all things Mexican, Japanese, and Korean but is also heavily influenced by her family’s Louisiana heritage. She loves spice, bright flavours, and fusion food, and she has a soft spot for a chocolate chip cookie.
See more of Spencer Lengsfield’s recipes
Spencer Lengsfield
Our Senior Food Producer Spencer was born in Los Angeles, so has an inherent love for all things Mexican, Japanese, and Korean but is also heavily influenced by her family’s Louisiana heritage. She loves spice, bright flavours, and fusion food, and she has a soft spot for a chocolate chip cookie.
See more of Spencer Lengsfield’s recipes
Ingredients
- 2 whole sea bass (we used Fish Said Fred)
- juice of 1 lime
- 2 aubergines, cut into thin wedges
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp roasted peanuts, roughly chopped, to serve
- 2 spring onions, thinly sliced into ribbons, to serve
- handful mint leaves, to serve
For the dressing
- 2 tsp light brown soft sugar
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- juice of 1 lime
- 2 tbsp jasmine rice
- ½ tsp tamarind paste (optional)
- 1 tsp chilli flakes
- 1 tbsp finely chopped coriander, plus extra to serve
Step by step
- Start by making the dressing: in a bowl, stir together the sugar, fish sauce and lime juice. While the sugar dissolves, add the uncooked rice to a pan and toast over a medium heat until golden brown. Transfer the rice to a mortar and grind to a powder using a pestle. Add 1 tablespoon of the toasted rice powder (reserving the rest to garnish) to the sugar-lime mixture with the tamarind (if using), chilli flakes, coriander and 1 tablespoon of water. Set aside.
- Score the sea bass by making 2-3 diagonal cuts across both sides of each fish. Squeeze the lime juice all over the skin and inside the fish. Season both the fish and the aubergine wedges with salt and drizzle with the oil.
- Heat the barbecue for direct and indirect cooking (the coals heaped to one side). Grill the fish over a medium heat (between the direct and indirect heat areas) for about 5 minutes on each side, or until the skin is crisp and the flesh is opaque and cooked through. Make sure you don’t flip the fish too early, otherwise the skin will get stuck to the grill rack. Meanwhile, grill the aubergine over direct heat until soft and lightly charred.
- Transfer the grilled fish and aubergine wedges to a serving platter, then drizzle liberally with the dressing. Scatter over the peanuts, spring onions, mint and extra coriander, along with the reserved toasted rice powder.
