Fish in Goan Coconut Milk and Chilli Broth

Fish in Goan Coconut Milk and Chilli Broth

This recipe is an easy way to add something new and exotic to your cooking repertoire

Mark Stower, Director of Food and Service

  • Preparation time: 15 mins
  • Cooking time: 25 mins
  • Serves: 6

Method

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Step 2

Chop the coriander stalks and reserve the leaves for later. Place the chopped stalks, onion, garlic and chillies in a bowl and add the coconut milk, soy sauce, kaffir lime leaves and ginger to this to make the baking stock.

Step 3

Place the fish and broccoli into an ovenproof dish and top with the chopped spring onions and the lime zest. Season with salt and pepper.

Step 4

Pour the coconut milk broth over the top of the fish and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.

Step 5

Remove from the oven and scatter over the chopped coriander leaves and the lime juice. Serve with jasmine rice.

Nutrition

Coconut products have become extremely popular in recent years, but the different types of products can be quite confusing.

Coconut milk comes from the grated meat of ripe coconuts that is soaked in water—and may be thinned with added water, as in the canned products. It is used very widely in Asian and Caribbean cuisine, especially in curries. Coconut cream is the cream that floats to the top in the above process, so it is similar to the milk, but is more concentrated and contains less water. Creamed coconut is the ground, compressed meat of the coconut, which is higher in fat than coconut milk.

Coconut water on the other hand is the water derived from green, under-ripe coconuts. Despite all the marketing hype, there is nothing amazingly healthy about coconut water, although it is refreshing and relatively low in calories and sugars compared with other juices at around 20 kcal per 100 millilitres.

Coconut meat, milk, cream and virgin coconut oil are all high in a specific type of saturated fatty acid called lauric acid. This type of saturated fat may be less damaging than other types of saturated fat, but the jury is still out, so moderation is the word when it comes to coconut—despite the hype!

Dr Juliet Gray, Company Nutritionist