The Cook Up with Adam Liaw – Season 6 Episode 52 – The Whole Fish
There’s plenty of fish in the sea, and three on The Cook Up, as chefs Minoli De Silva and Narin ‘Jack’ Kulasai join Adam to make dishes with the whole fish. Delish!
In each episode, host Adam Liaw is joined by 2 special guests – chefs, cooks and celebrities – and together they cook up a variety of dishes, sharing their knowledge, tips and tricks of the trade, and providing everyday inspiration for foodies and non-foodies alike.
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[Music] hello Madam Leo and welcome to the Cook up the all new iPhone on tonight’s menu baked maray cod with vavan butter barbecue Snapper with tomato and Cameron sauce and deep fried whole baramundi with three flavor sauce let’s meet our guests minoli de Silva made the jump from a career in chemical engineering to a career engineering some of the tastiest Tran food in Australia at her restaurant Ella B manoli hello manoli hi Adam thanks for having me great to see you Narin Jack kesai is the owner chef of Sydney’s poror fat restaurant and he says he dislikes food with no flavor that checks out because all of his dishes are jam-packed with the rich culture and tastes of Thailand hi Jack hi Adam thank you Jack do you think that we understand Thai food quite well in Australia yes it’s a lot of Thai food in austral I think people experience a lot of good Thai foods I think they know them really well I think compared to other countries in the world that are not Thailand I think in Australia we have a pretty great understanding of TI food generally yeah yeah and that must make your job a little bit easier yes I just want to make food more complex and more delicious yeah why not and and I want to tell more story about Tha food that’s it amazing mini Ella is uh essentially it’s like a modern Sri Lankan restaurant would you say do you think we understand Sri Lankan food well in Australia I definitely don’t think we understand shanen food well in Australia and I I think that’s a beautiful thing because you know if everyone’s trying to understand every cuisine at once then may in some ways our very successful multiculturalism does make eating quite confusing because there’s a lot of Cuisines that we need to know like if you’re in Japan for example most people just like I know Japanese food then then we’re done you know yeah but uh wouldn’t have it any other way skate on a plate Snapper on a platter forget the fets cuz tonight we are cooking the whole fish Sri Lanka is an island Sri Lanka Cuisine uses a lot of seafood do you prefer fillets or cooking whole fish manoli I love whole fish yeah yeah the bones there’s so much deliciousness on a whole fish and if you’re just using fillets a time and a place you’re missing out on some good stuff Jack when you’re eating a whole fish in Tai Cuisine for example what do you use is it like knife and fork Fork and Spoon Chopsticks fingers like mostly people in Thailand right now at the moment they use Fork and Spoon yeah I’m from a fork and spoon country it’s the best way to eat in my opinion but I think whole fish can be a bit challenging if you’re using a knife and fork and which a lot of people are quite used to sometimes I think the implements just make all the difference yeah they forget Fork and Spoon when we get they getting drunk and they use hand ins [Laughter] that’s another way to do it choosing a whole fish can be a little challenging however so who better to speak to about that than Ross from malula River Fisheries Ross this is pretty much like paradise here isn’t it fantastic beautiful part of the coast what sort of things do you get in here so predominantly here we’re chasing chuna swordfish Spanish mackerel starting to run Mahi all the prom boats so we do a lot of horing here too amazing if people are wanting to eat fish more sustainably what are some good choices they can make at the supermarket North Queensland baramundi got a hamasa king fish they’re all sustainable delicious fish delicious fish [Music] 100% Ross what do we got here uh we got a Nana guy that was caught this morning off the reef at malar yeah and how do I choose a Fresh Fish Fresh Fish usually by Red gills Clear Eyes yeah firm the touch and a little bit slimy people get a bit weird about the slime on the fish but it’s a natural protection for the fish so if it’s there it kind of means the fish is fresh 100% 100% And and so how would you cook this this kind of fish fry beer better very versatile fish fantastic Ross thank you so much uh I’m guess now I just got to decide what to have for dinner lots of great information lots of great options but I’m going to make with my whole fish baked maray cod with vavan butter [Music] muray Cod is one of my favorite fish and also very sustainable choice these days I start with my whole Murray cod you can get these of any size from sort of 600 G up to this is about you know 1.2 1.3 kilos I just wipe off a bit of the the slime on the outside you don’t need to but it’s just kind of okay and then I just put a bit of oil on there as well and the oil is really just to protect it stop it from drying out a bit too much and so the best way easiest way to cook it just throw it in the oven I’m just going to put that in the oven 15 20 minutes is and you can just test it as it sort of flakes off then uh we know what’s happening so vavan French Curry French Curry yeah because the French you know if you go to certain areas of the Indian subcontinent you see a lot of French influence this is sort of the reverse of that so uh I have some coriander some cumin finer Greek mustard seeds chili uh cardamon cloves and some black pepper there I’ve got some turmeric that I’ve got powdered so I’m just going to fry the whole spices I won’t you can toast the turmeric as well but you don’t really need to but toasting these whole spices gives you so much flavor it really does so I’m just going to throw all of these in leaving the turmeric off to one side toast them and I’m going to grind them in a spice grinder the other thing that I’m going to add to this is a little bit of Curry Leaf I’m going to put Curry leaves in the dish but I also want to put some Curry Leaf into the curry powder as well so just toast those I see a lot of people toasting in a frying pan M fine I also when I toast things in a frying pan I end up with mustard seeds everywhere because they just so I always toast anything whether it’s sesame seeds or spices I always do it in a sauce spin because it just lets you swirl it so it gets a bit you know it’s easier and also do you think it it it’s like a more gentle toast yeah I think so probably not releasing so much heat yeah Curry leaves when you fry them dry like this they sort of dry out and and uh not so crispy but more crunchy in some ways so I’ve got a few aromatics I’m going to put not into the curry powder but this is just for the next step but this is all quite a fast dish so I’m going to just whirl through I’m so intrigued that this is French it’s like I guess with the maritime spice root there were a lot of spices that went from Asia to Europe and along with that you got to bring some flavor with you so you’ve got things like the the British Navy curries and even curries in Japan and all these kind of places and uh I think if you taste it you wouldn’t go oh that’s French cuisine you know but it does uh I guess have its Origins with the the colonial French input into Asia yeah I think it’s really interesting that modern cuisine in a lot of countries is actually influenced by so many other countries for Sri Lanka it’s the Dutch Portuguese bit of Malay Chinese all right that is smelling absolutely delicious so now I’m going to just put all of these dry spices into my spice grinder to be honest it’s better to cool these down a little bit first before you start grinding them because once you toast them they release oils and those oils can make your spice grinder clog up a little bit but I’m on a schedule here so we’re just going to go straight into it all right immediately super fragrant which is just the way we like it smells you see those little those little clumps there that’s just from toasting too hot but we will make it work I’ll add my turmeric in there just mix all of that together turmeric has a a wonderful flavor but it also has obviously great color but that is a great vadan spice mix that we can just sort of keep doing its thing I’m going to cut a few aromatics here some garlic the echel lots I’m just slicing them and then I’ll I’ll slice some ginger as well Jack what whole fish do you serve at your restaurant right now we do the whole barandi barandes such a good fish barandi yeah and when I moved to auster I tried the marot and cook the same thing I with the baram it’s amazing as well yeah okay yeah so I’m going to throw a whole pile of butter into my sauce pin this is just a butter that’s going to go over the top of my fish and because I’ve got so many spices I can cook that butter any way I like like I’m going to put a bit of color into this butter just cuz it’s nice nice but I wouldn’t have to necessarily go all that way so I’m just going to get the butter a little bit Brown first and then add these aromatics in once you get the aromatics in it’s not really going to Brown anymore from there and then I’ll finish it off with some uh it smells so good Adam just I just W it just came across my nose well honestly freshly ground spices like that make the world a difference like when you’ve got like I know some spices that are maybe a little bit sad that have been sitting around for a bit too long not ideal but once you start to get all of these things happening they giving it life again all of it I love toasting spices and then cooking it because you’re just building layer into like like depth into your dish right do you use spices in t we use a lot of spices yeah use a lot of spice especially in curries yeah there is like cumin and and coriander seed and things in uh In tha curries as well but the more wi is a turmeric turmeric yeah yes of course that’s where you get the color from the the the green curry people think it’s it’s very green but actually green curry has quite a lot of yellow in it from the ter yeah yeah okay this is happening well and fast I’m going to get a few more curry leaves because I just absolutely adore Curry leaves measure that with your heart Adam that’s the term right measure measured with your heart yes all right and run away cuz they crackle maybe they’re not going to crackle today constantly Amazed by cooking I thought that was going to like crackle and whatever but nothing happened it’s when you least expect it I promise now I haven’t even added my Curry yet but that’s already smelling fantastic and essentially I’ve already toasted these spices there’s already flavoring them this is almost like a TKA or something so I’m just going to put in some doesn’t really matter how much I’ll save the rest of that stir that in smelling fabulous and you could cook the onions so they caramelize you could you you can do lots of different things with it but I’m just going to keep that fairly simple for now turn off the heat fish ready to come out of the oven and when it comes out it looks like that you just need to essentially you can get a skewer in there and and test the temperature against your lip to see how it’s cooked but I already did that with this one so I know it’s cooked transferring the fish with the paper on and then I can either leave the paper on there or remove it kind of either way I think I could get it off there but I like the way the paper kind of frames the fish there oh I need to season cuz I haven’t seasoned anything yet so quite a lot of seasoning for the fish quite a lot for the butter as well colorful flavorful some nice wedges of lime for presentation and then these middle ones I just put straight over the top very simple whole Maric cod with Von butter [Music] I I think people are concerned about the work of a whole fish but it’s actually less work than fillets I think you know once the fish is cooked it just comes straight off the bones there’s no deboning required no pin boning nothing like that mhm leave the work for the table when everyone’s eating this is delicious delicious like the fattiness of the maricard is just perfect to stand up to all those toasted spices they love it the lime is really important because you know in the butter there’s a bit of salt on the fish and things but no sweetness or sourness really other than a bit of the natural sweetness of the spices so the lime provides that little bit of sweeten sour that’s so important this is what’s so good about whole fish like you’ve got the silkiness maricot is so fatty and firm and you just get all of the good bits not just like a especially the skin yeah yum success after the break manoli and Jack will share their whole fish [Music] dishes welcome back to the Cook up tonight we are hooked on the idea of cooking the whole fish we have reeled in two fantastic chefs manol D Sila and Jack kolsai Jack what are you making I’m do a Hy with three flavor sauce today amazing minoli I’m doing barbecu snapper great fish [Music] dishes love the smell of coconut oil in the morning um so this barbecue Snapper dish what what are you how’s it starting you making the sauce first I’m making the sauce first and then you know get these aromates going now coconut oil gets hot very quickly but quick cook is a good cook you know so this is you got cumin you got garlic you got Ginger but the main ingredient for this is this guy right Tamarind that’s right that Tamarind is so sour and I love eating that with tomato which is also quite acidic oh cool you know it’s just like T tomato the two good sources of sourness people think that taram is sweet sometimes but it’s actually very sour but tomatoes are this sort of good balance of sweet sour and savory exactly and I think like you know when you’re playing with sour and sweet ingredients you don’t just have to put one in gosh those thank you this what can get out of hand at times that the muit lime LGE going in just smells amazing yeah I love it but then also oh K Le is my favorite again like I said measured with your heart right I just like fresh arom mats I think it’s uh a beautiful pairing for the Snapper that’s barbecued and yeah just like I love cashmir chili because it’s a little bit Floral yeah and beautiful color beautiful color Yes Yes um if you can’t find cashmir chili I always find a good substitute is Korean chili cuz it has the same color vibrancy at least yeah and um marash chili I’m not sure if I’m saying that it’s like a Turkish chili which I randomly found it chop um nice are there any other sort of wet ingredients going in yes so I am I guess the tomatoes will going at some point and they’ll be wet totally so I’m going to do this and then I’m going to turn it down low and off while I go to the barbecue okay but I’m going to get the Tamarind in now because I want that cooking down and almost like caramelizing a bit oh lovely that smells so good already Jack whole baramundi yep three flavor sauce yes my favorit baramundi is a great fish and you’re you’re deep frying this one we do deep fry we love the crispy fish in Thailand oh look how you’re cutting that yeah so going going down to the bone and then side and leave it a little bit to open the area to get the oil and that’ll sort of fan out a little bit like like wings it’s going to broom like flour when it deep fries Bloom like flow that’s a better way of putting it yeah this is the way we cook and it cook faster oh yes it cooks faster the way through there’s a lot this is that’s a really good one because sometimes at Chinese restaurants they sometimes do these really elaborate Cuts Like squirrel cut and then sh there’s a way of cutting a fish that makes it look like corn like it comes out the whole fish turns inside out and looks like a is is cooked faster for the BC restaurant and it make the fish beautiful deep fryer a whole basket I think the oil is ready make sure it’s it’s safe make sure the fish is not too wet yeah it’s dangerous yes and then you’re going to make oh you bend him around around to make sure it go beautiful on the plate as well slowly go down oh and cuz it’s in the basket it’s going to kind of hold itself into a circle yeah semicircle yeah it’s going to take about 8 to 10 minutes so nothing on the fish at all no flour no uh so could be later that’s cool you can already see it curling as it’s going alreadying wow it’s beautiful oh that’s amazing away I’m going to get away from that before it exp thank you Adam Jack’s making magic in there uh wow this looks amazing that’s a big snapper it is a big snapper um but I love you know cooking it on the barbie because it’s so easy it really is I think people have in their minds that cooking whole fish is difficult but honestly it’s easier than cooking fillets you don’t have to do anything you just like throw in a barbecue throw it in the oven if you got a steam oven you can steam it in there so what’s going inside the fish here um I’ve got lemongrass some coriander root ginger garlic and macro lime leaves amazing like in the time that we have just chatted it’s already done just wrap it up and oh how did you get the banana leaves so soft so I just hovered it above the fire and it releases all these oils and it makes it pliable and it’s all right just you know just get it on the fish isn’t going to like leak out through the hole so you just want the flavor of I’ll help you on this side thank you and the foil is such a help for this cuz in in the past you just have to skew it with skewers and tooth pcks and stuff to hold the banana leave Clos but now boil is out that is it and then that goes couple of questions for you when it goes in the barbecue is it a do you have to flip it or can you just Hood down let it kind of cook on one side depending on what kind of barbecue you use do that but if you’re doing it on a barbecue um with a hood with a hood I I I would tend to flip it I it it depends some barbecues will circulate the heat really well it’s true this is such a big fish this is a big fish it’s like you’re probably going to have to go across all of the the burners there and tomatoes for the sauce and tomatoes for the sauce so I’m just going to char them get them nice and soft and a little bit Smoky and that’s it so easy jack how’s it all looking hi zams I think it’s ready right now amazing I’m going to leave it off and get the dress oh boy that looks so good that look beautiful right that’s stunning and will that fish stay in that shape as we take it out of the basket exactly exactly ex exciting you probably need a spin of salt at the moment little bit all right sauce wise what what what goes into the sauce we have some long Le chili shot garlic and of course cor the root great let’s go yeah aot go in root cor the root just a little bit of garlic yeah pin salt lash pinch ready wow okay course P not take long also not like a puree just a CO no no pure we need some textures okay yeah we need some texture from the p as well that looks perfect over there I can see you’ve got some palm sugar yep what are these two things here this is The Tamarind Waters tamarind water okay and the other one this is for sauce W okay amazing what do we do with this paste uh we’re going to fry into the I’ll take this out for you Yep Hot Oil right here okay then pour the oil in you can test it that’s perfect perfect be fantastic then paste ready that’s perfect wow so is is this going to be spicy H not really it just look like that yeah I actually really like dishes that look super spicy but aren’t super spicy no no no no not at all so fry until aromatics fry into the all separates so it looks aromatic and then tamarind water fish sauce sugar that’s three flavors right I think it might be spicy stop when we come back my whole Fish Wish has come true because it’s time to [Applause] taste welcome back to the cookout where Chef’s manoli de Sila and Jack ksai are putting whole fishes on our dishes Jack how is your sauce looking ah I think my sauce is ready nice let t and manoli this fish looks spectacular thank you I think it’s ready to go yeah okay look at that so that that sauce now sweet from the kle is it kle yes so I used uh kle trickle you could use coconut trickle coconut sugar you know unrefined sure let’s do it here we go beautiful beautiful and I’m just going to pop some sauce on the side because you can never have too much sauce um and then garnish it just with some beautiful aromates there goes the chili chili onion anything else just goes on there yes I’m going to put some fresh coriander oh gorgeous and a wedge of lime love it this smells amazing yes a lot of people think about Thai food like sweet chili sauce right yep is this the real thing sweet chili sauce is make difference okay like when you talk about the red curry we have 10 red curry in t what kind of red curry you talking about the fish looks amazing let’s get the sauce on the fish sure 10 red curries 50 chili sauces I love the shape of that fish yeah me too and easy to pick it up with your friend and your fames that looks so good that’s so good I can’t stop looking at it bar Snapper with tomato Tamarind sauce and deep fried whole baramundi with three flavor [Music] sauce I I kind of love the similarity of the dishes you know there’s there’s sourness sweetness savoriness all coming together yeah we have very similar ingredients didn’t we similar I’m interested to see but I love the spice that top up as well let Mak more interesting manoli that is delicious that is so good really really it’s really sour from The Tamarind in some ways it’s like Jack’s dish and my dish and then your dish in the middle because there like some of the the South Indian spices in my dish or French spices I guess we we’re calling them and then this is s of Southeast Asian and South Asian at the same time it’s so good cuz used cumin but then a lot of aromates ginger garlic lemongrass marcet lime yeah nice I could eat that whole fish all right Jack the crispy baramundi with lots of different textures happening there as well oh my you like it m I love the all of those crispy elements obviously you got the crispy fish but then the leaves and the garlic and the onion all have different elements in there as well so you actually get these different tastes as you buy each mouth that is so good so delicious but so different it’s got a lot sweeter flavors the aromates are really coming through and just like different amounts of ingredients have completely changed the dish I love it thank you so much I I couldn’t be happier honestly Jack manoli thank you so much for joining me and cooking your whole fish thank you than baked to fried barbecued or steamed there’s a whole lot of fun to be had when you’re making a meal out of the whole fish if you want more of the cookups and more delicious food ideas head SBS on demand I’m Madam Leo thanks for watching the cook up [Music]
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