Cookbook Challenge (Outdoor) - Whole Grilled Fish with Curry Paste

5th Cookbook Challenge Theme is Outdoor.

Dish chosen : Whole Grilled Fish with Curry Paste
Cookbook : Holiday
Author : Bill Granger

I had always wanted to try this recipe ever since I got this book but I have no idea why I waited so long. In fact when I saw the 5th challenge theme, this dish popped up immediately. Barbecue/Grill definitely link to outdoor.

This recipe stated it serve 4. But with only 2 of us, we didn't had any problem finishing up the whole fish. We love seafood maybe that's why. Plus I didn't serve it with rice as suggested. I roasted some potatoes and pumpkin with home grown rosemary instead.

Ingredients
1.5kg Whole Snapper, cleaned, gutted and scaled - I'm not sure how heavy this snapper was. The picture looks strange too because I had all the fins cut off.


2 tablespoons Red Curry Paste - This is the curry powder used to cook fish. I have another curry powder specific for meat and it's the same brand but packaging in green instead of yellow. I'm not too sure what's the different between the curry powder for fish and meat but was told by my FIL I should have both in my kitchen. I just follow his instruction.


1 Lime, sliced, plus 1 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoons Grapeseed Oil (or other light-flavoured oil)
Sea Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper

To Serve
Steamed Rice
Lime Wedges

Using a sharp knife, make four or five diagonal cuts in each side of the fish. Push the lime slices into the cavity of the fish.
I also placed some lime slices in the diagonal cuts.



Mix together the red curry paste and lime juice and spread over both sides of the fish. Leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes. - I used more than the suggested lime juice. I didn't manage to marinate for at least 30 minutes. I was running a bit behind time.


Arrange two large pieces of foil slightly overlapping on your work surface and drizzle with half the oil. Put the fish in the middle of the foil, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with the remaining oil. Wrap the fish up well in the foil, then wrap another layer of foil around it.

Preheat your barbecue or chargrill to medium-high. Cook the fish 7-8  minutes on each side, or until the flesh shows white and firm through the cuts you made. Serve with steamed rice.
The weather wasn't suitable for barbecue therefore I popped the whole fish into the oven and finish it off by grilling it.




This is a really simple recipe. Most important is the freshness of the fish. It wasn't too spicy nor too sour even though lime was used. Both of us enjoyed this a lot and it was something different from my usual way of cooking fish.

31st Oct Weekend

We are back to routine this week. Both of us back to work and CL on night shift during the weekend. That also means I'm going to have a lot of free time during the day while he's catching up on his beauty sleep. What's my favourite way of spending the time other than trying new recipes cooking/baking.

I always want to try making Sausage Roll especially after I spotted a Pork, Veal and Pistachio Sausage Roll on my Bill Granger Holiday cookbook. With puff pastry in my freezer, a new pack of pistachio in my pantry, a pack of mince beef which I just bought on Saturday marketing; I guess sausage roll should be a good idea for CL's supper. Something different plus I can finally try the recipe.

Pistachio Sausage Roll

The sausage roll turn out really nice but could do with less spices. The recipe call for 2 teaspoons of cumin, 1 teaspoon of coriander for 1kg of meant. "800+g of mince beef" was in my brain when I'm mixing in the spices with the cooked onion. But I was wrong! I only had a 500+g of beef but there's no turing back :(. I prayed it will turn out alright. It did! CL says it taste a bit bitter but that can be easily solve by having them with sauce (chilli, ketchup etc).

I also made a No-Kead Bread. I came to know about No-Kead Bread more than a year ago thru food bloggers entries. I always wanted to try but I do not have a cast iron pot or anything which has a lid that is oven proof. After reading Sarah latest entry, it occur to me I can try it now! I spend 17hrs on the 1st proof and it look promising. When it comes to shaping, I'm totally lost and I suck at it. It's definitely a long wait from mixing the ingredients till taking the product out from the oven. But it's worth the wait.

My 1st No-Kead Bread crust is really hard but soft on the inside. Is that suppose to be? It didn't look as nice as Sarah's. I coated the bread with too much flour, will need to cut that down next time.

No Knead Bread

I will be trying this recipe out a few more time to improve on my bread making. Plus I'm trying to resist myself from baking cake because CL will only eat 1/4 at most and I ended up finishing them myself. As a result, I gained a lot of weight. =(

Time to try losing some weight now.

Chocolate Cake

Yeah! I finally found the picture!

Thought I lost it but turn out I didn't look hard enough and detail enough. Plus I think I need to change my filing system for the photos.

This is the Chocolate Cake which I tried months ago mentioned here. Definitely going to bake for daddy when he comes, he loves cake. Bet he will enjoyed it a lot! As for mummy, I need to start looking into Butter Cake as that's her favourite.

Chocolate Filled French Toast

Another Bill Granger's recipe.

French toast came into my mind once I woke up. I had some leftover stale bread. Milk in the fridge and eggs.  Remembered there is a french toast recipe in the Bill Granger's Holiday cookbook, best time to give it a try. 

It's very sinful on a easy morning but it was really filling and delicious!!!! 

Beef in Red Wine with Creamy Smash Potato

Beef in Red Wine with Creamy Smash Potato

After I knocked off on Monday, I dropped by to the Fruit & Vegetable shop and Coles to top up the fridge.

When I got home, I had sudden urge to try cooking a casserole dish! I had never tried it before and always wanted to. So I did a search among my cookbooks and found a recipe which I like. Best of all, I had all the ingredients in my fridge and pantry(that's why I love stocking my pantry with lots of food. CL used to comment we are always ready for war)!

The recipe is from Bill Granger. I bought his cookbook title HOLIDAY more than a month ago and never really had the time to read every single recipe in it. Before trying this dish, I only tried his Chocolate Cake recipe (still trying to find the picture I took). It turn out really well!! The cake is moist, it's super easy to make and most important I love how it taste (not too sweet). I'm kinda of hook onto him especially after this dish.

Back to Beef in Red Wine. It's really easy to cook. Chop the meat, onions, garlic, celery. Mix them up and marinate with red wine. Chop up 1 tin of tomatoes and mix into the meat + vegetable after marinate and pop into the oven for 2 hours. Before times up, just fry some bacon with mushroom till bacon crisp and mix into the meat+ vegetable, also mix in some corn starch and continue to cook in the oven for another 20mins. I reckon it taste better after a day. It's such a nice dish for the cold winter.

Review by CL is pretty good. This dish is definitely very different from what I had tried cooking before. Initially I was afraid CL won't like it due to the red wine (he doesn't drink) but in the end I worried for nothing coz he likes it too :)

If my hectic schedule is not going to end soon, bet there's more beef in red wine on my table. Or even more Bill Granger's recipes.