fresh from the coast

I am not the first person to say this but San Miguel Seafood snapper is THE best of all. You can buy his fresh seafood at Austin Farmers' Market downtown every Saturday morning. The market goes until 1 pm but I said morning because Roberto will run out, I mean it. Go early. At Thai Fresh, we only use seafood from Roberto or we don't make seafood dishes. My dad, who is the pickiest eater alive, after his first bite of the fish said "Good Fish."

I have never tasted fish so good and sweet. The most important of all, Roberto drives out to the coast every week to pick up these freshest and most delicious fish (and shrimp)from a family friend. He brought in black fin red snapper, gorgeous, a little over 7 pounds, into the restaurant.



He cut them up for us with his sharp knife. With his skills, the bones were bare in minutes.





We made stock out of the bones and the head, I got enough meat out of that stock to make the whole family some Gang Som. Now that my parents are in town, I have plenty of good food to eat at all time. My mom loves cooking (you can probably guess that) and my dad does too. Between three of us, we feed each other all day long.

Now, where did the meat from that fish go? We made Chu Chee curry out of the meat. This is a delicate curry that only uses seafood. I deep fried the fish enough to prevent the fish from breaking apart when scooping the curry. The rest is super easy to make. All you need is good fish, curry paste (of course, you can get those at Thai Fresh), coconut milk, fish sauce and Kaffir lime leaves.



Chu Chee Curry

1 can Chu Chee paste (Mae Sri brand)
2 cans coconut milk (13.5 oz can)
1.5 pounds seafood
fish sauce and sugar to taste
3 kaffir lime leaves, julienned

Fry curry paste with 1.5 cups of coconut cream (the top part of the can, don’t shake the can). Fry until fragrant and the cream starts to release some oil on the top layer (about 5-8 minutes). Add the rest of coconut milk in the can. Bring to boil and add shrimp until cooked (it will takes only a few minutes). Add fish sauce and sugar to taste. Sprinkle with julienned kaffir lime leave, turn off the heat. Served over rice.