Yellow Curry Coconut Baked Whole Rockfish

Name: Yellow Curry Coconut Baked Whole Rockfish
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Cuisine: Thai
Ingredients: 1 Whole Red Rockfish, cleaned and scaled.; 1/4 Cup Coconut Oil; 1 Can Coconut Cream, divided; 4 3″ pieces of lemongrass (From 2 stalks); 2 Tbls Yellow Curry Paste; 1 Tbls Brown Sugar; 2 Tbls Fish Sauce; 6 Small Leeks, trimmed; 6 Baby Carrots, trimmed; 1 Yukon Gold potato cut into 3/4 inch cubes; 2 Limes cut into wedges; 1 Kale Leaf thinly sliced(or Spinach or any green); Zest of one small orange

By2 Cooks in the Kitchen December 29, 2023June 11, 2024

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Yellow Curry Coconut Baked Whole Rockfish

A whole fish is always a show stopper when it come out of the oven and this whole rockfish baked with yellow curry and coconut milk is no exception. Vibrant colors and warm flavors make this a treat for family or company. We get our rockfish from the fishermen down at the docks but ask your fishmonger about them. There are a lot of different kinds of rockfish and we’ve never found one we didn’t like.

This recipe is naturally gluten free.

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Here is a video of 2 Cooks in the Kitchen making Yellow Curry Coconut Baked Whole Rockfish.

Start With Coconut Oil and Coconut Cream

We start this recipe by preparing our curry sauce. We’ll heat about 1/2 cup of coconut oil in a large pot over medium heat. When the oil gets hot we’ll add about half of our can of coconut cream. We want the thickest part of the coconut cream at this point so we can get the oil to separate a little from the milk.

Photo shows coconut cream in the coconut oil starting to cook — Add Some Coconut Cream

Add Lemongrass

We will put in the lemongrass and then let this cook for a while. The oil and cream will start to work together and you will see oily bubbles developing in the cream. It is still not ready yet. You need to keep cooking it a little longer.

As the coconut cream cooks you start to see larger bubbles forming — Oil Bubbles In the Coconut Cream

Cook Until Large Bubbles Form

We want this to cook until the pan is full of large oily bubbles. Then it will be ready.

Photo shows lots of oil bubbles throughout the coconut milk — The Bubbles We Are Looking For

Add Yellow Curry Paste

Once we have our bubbles we want to add our yellow curry paste. We will stir this in well and let it start cooking with the cream.

Cook Until Bright Yellow Bubbles Form

We want this to come back up to a boil and bubble for a while to get the curry paste incorporated. You’ll have a pretty color and a nice smell by now. We want to cook this until the oil separates out from everything and makes bright yellow bubbles throughout the sauce.

Photo shows the curry sauce cooked with yellow bubbles throughout — Yellow Oil Bubbles Throughout

Add Sugar and Fish Sauce

Now that we have our curry cooking along well it is time to add the sugar and fish sauce. We’ll get those stirred in and then add the rest of our coconut cream.

Add the rest of the cream — Add the Rest of the Coconut Cream

Score the Fish

While we let that come back up to a bubble we can get our fish ready. We want to cut three deep scores, all the way down to the bone, in the fattest part of both sides of the fish. Then we will put the fish right into an oiled baking dish.

Cut 3 slits in each side of the fish down to the bone — Cut 3 Scores In Each Side

Put Some Curry Sauce In the Fish

Next we will put some of our curry sauce inside the fish. We just want to get some of that flavor in there and then we’ll put the sauce back on the burner.

Put yellow curry sauce inside the fish — Curry Sauce Inside the Fish

Cook the Vegetables In the Sauce

We are going to precook our vegetables a little in the curry sauce so we’ll just toss them right in the pan. the fish only cooks for about 20 minutes and we want the veggies to get cooked so about 5 minutes of boiling now should help things along. We are using leeks, carrots and potatoes here but go with what you want. It is nice to have some other color for the dish.

Put the veggies in the curry sauce — Cook the Veggies in the Curry Sauce

Put Lime Wedges In the Fish

While the veggies are cooking we can put the lime wedges inside the fish. You can just lay them in there and close it up.

Put lime pieces inside the fish — Lime Wedges Inside the Fish

Put the Vegetables In the Baking Pan With the Fish

We’ll lay our vegetables in the pan on both sides of the fish and then work some curry sauce into the slits we cut in the fish.

Put the vegetables around the fish — Vegetables Around the Fish

Work the curry sauce into the slits with a spoon — Work the Curry Into the Fish

Put the Curry Sauce In the Pan

And then we’ll pour the remaining yellow curry sauce over the fish in the baking pan.

Pour the rest of the curry sauce over the fish. — Pour the Sauce Over the Fish

Add Greens and Orange Zest

We’ll add the kale now and then the orange zest to make it prettier. We are using kale to add color as well as nutrition to the dish but you could use any green including spinach for this. A sprinkle of orange zest on top will make the dish pop.

Photo shows the fish all ready for the oven — Rockfish Ready to Cook

Bake At 400° For 20 Minutes

With our rockfish ready to cook we will pop it into a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, turning the pan after the first 15 minutes. Then our dish is ready to serve.

Photo shows the bones being lifted off the fish — Remove the Bones and Head

Put the vegetables into two large bowls (or plates) and then carefully remove the fish from the top of the bones. Once you have the top fish off, remove the bones and head and serve the rest of the fish. Alternatively you can just gather around the pan and eat the fish together.

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2 Cooks in the Kitchen