Grilled Fish in Banana Leaves

Fish is really good for health, especially your eyes. Today, I will introduce  Grilled Fish in Banana Leaves (Cá Nướng Lá Chuối) for you. 

You will never regret when cooking this dish. It will bring a spectacular and Vietnamese traditional flavor in your mouth.

Ingredients

- 1 big snake head fish / round scad fish

- Star fruit, green banana, pineapple, Vietnamese mint

- Vermicelli, Rice Pancake (Bánh Đa – Buy at Vietnamese Markets)

- Banana leaves, roasted peanut.

- Vegetable: Salad + basil + hear leaf + bean sprout, clean them.

Spices for marinate fish

Dried purple onion + salt + maggi’s stuff + sesame oil + vegetable oil + saffron flour + sliced spring onion. Mix together and stir well. (Mixture A)

Spices for sauce

2 tablespoons minced pineapple + 1 small bowl shrimp paste (mắm nêm – buy at Vietnamese Markets) + sugar + minced garlic + chili + lemon juice.

Process

- Clean fish with water added a little salt. If there have fish scales, use knife to scale them away. Cut some lines on body fish. Marinate with mixture A. Use your hands to apply spices around fish. Wait about 3 – 4 hours. 

- Peel off the cover of pineapple, cut off their eyes. Use ½ pineapple for this step. Slice small and grind it. 

- Garlic + chili: peel off the cover, and mince. Add grinded pineapple + minced garlic + chili + sugar into shrimp paste bowl. Shrimp paste is really salty. So, you have to add more sugar into it, stir well and taste until it is suit your flavor. After that, add some lemon juice drops into this mixture. 

- Clean star fruit, cut off margin of them and slice into long pieces. (like photo)

- Use ½ pineapple left, slice into long pieces. (like photo)

- Green banana slice into thin circle shapes. Soak into water before using.

- Clean Vietnamese mint, spring onion, wait to dry. 

- Soak vermicelli into hot water about 3 – 5 minutes to clean it. Then, wash in cold water about 1 minute. 

- After marinate fish, cover it by banana leaves. Bring to grill until leaves are fragrant with charcoal. If you want to make sure fish is cooked, you can steam fish about 3 – 5 minutes before grilling. 

- Slice small spring onion, add a little oil and fry them about 1 minute. After that, apply it and crushed roasted peanut around fish. 

- Using Grilled Fish in Banana Leaves with shrimp paste + sliced star fruit + vegetable + vermicelli + rice pancake will bring a stunning flavor.