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Thai

Gaeng Khiao Wan Pla — Green Curry with Fish / แกงเขียวหวานปลา

Fish green curry requires a different technique than the standard chicken version — the delicacy of fresh fish demands shorter cooking times, earlier attention to seasoning, and careful management of the coconut milk addition to avoid curdling around the protein. The best fish for green curry are firm-fleshed varieties (snapper, barramundi, kingfish, or wild-caught trout) cut into large medallions rather than fillets, as they hold shape better through the curry heat. The paste frying and coconut cracking proceed identically to chicken green curry, but the fish is added in the last 5 minutes of cooking and the wok is removed from heat while there is still some residual pink in the thickest part — carryover heat completes the cooking.

‹Swipe for the next dish›
ServesFour portions
Within reach2of 6 in Squamish

One shipped · one in Vancouver · four not yet within reach.

How the 6 are reached
Shipped to you
1 · palm sugar
In Vancouver
1 · coconut milk
Not yet within reach
4 · green curry paste, kaffir lime leaves, thai basil leaves, long green chillies
Cook
‹ Previous · Gaeng Keow Wan Gai — Green Curry with Chicken / แกงเขียวหวานไก่|Next · Gaeng Kiao Wan (Green Curry) ›
I

The Market List

The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.

800 g
firm-fleshed fish — snapper, barramundi, kingfish, or wild-caught trout
cut into large medallions or cross-cut whole steaks with bone
Your own market
400 ml
coconut milk
Origin · Sri Lankan coconut (Coconut Research Institute of Sri Lanka), Sri LankaIn Vancouver · Jeya Brothers →
80 g
green curry paste
Not yet within reach of Squamish · each reach is counted
30 ml
fish sauce
Your own market
10 g
4
kaffir lime leaves
Not yet within reach of Squamish · each reach is counted
1 handful
Thai basil leaves
Not yet within reach of Squamish · each reach is counted
2
long green chillies
sliced on the diagonal
Not yet within reach of Squamish · each reach is counted

Within reach counts in town, delivered, shipped and the nearest city. A staple counts once it has a local seller. Charted from each shop's own pages; not yet vouched by a cook who shops here.

The larder of Squamish →

Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.

II

The Method

1
Place the wok over medium-high heat and add the thick top layer of the coconut milk — the cream — to the dry wok, so the fat renders out without the thinner milk diluting it and slowing the process. Fry, stirring continuously, until the cream separates and the oil rises visibly to the surface. The cracking is complete when the cream looks oily and glossy, not wet.
From the canon — Fresh coconut milk — extracted from freshly grated coconut flesh rather than purchased in a can — and the technique of 'cracking' it: heating the thick, fat-… Coconut Milk: Cracking, Frying, Reducing →
2
Add the green curry paste to the cracked coconut cream and fry, pressing and folding the paste through the fat, so the heat of the oil drives off the raw, sharp edge of the lemongrass, galangal, and shrimp paste and replaces it with a deep, toasted fragrance. Keep moving the paste — it will catch and scorch quickly at this stage. The paste is ready when it has darkened slightly and no longer smells sharp.
From the canon — The green of this paste is not from vegetables — it is from fresh chillies, specifically the small, intensely hot green bird's eye chilli (prik kee nuu) and … Green Curry Paste (Krung Gaeng Khiew Wan) →
3
Pour in the remaining coconut milk and bring to a gentle simmer, then add the kaffir lime leaves. This is where the dish lives or dies: season the curry base thoroughly with fish sauce and palm sugar now, before the fish enters the wok, because any adjustment once the fish is in the sauce requires the kind of stirring that will break the flesh. Taste — the sauce should read balanced across salt, sweetness, and heat.
4
Add the fish medallions or bone-in steaks to the simmering curry and do not stir; instead, use a spoon to baste the sauce over the fish so the flesh cooks evenly from above and below without being disturbed. Cook for 4–5 minutes only, then remove the wok from heat while the thickest part still shows a trace of pink, so the carryover heat finishes the cooking gently and the flesh stays cohesive rather than tightening and flaking apart. The flesh should yield to gentle pressure at the surface but remain cohesive.
5
Scatter Thai basil leaves and sliced green chillies over the surface. Serve immediately — the curry sauce should be slightly thinner than a chicken green curry, as the fish will have released its juices into the sauce during cooking.
III

Quality Hierarchy

01
Reserve — Whole cross-cut bone-in steaks of line-caught wild snapper or kingfish; the bone holds the flesh through cooking and releases gelatin that gives the sauce a silk texture no boneless fish can match.
02
Estate — Large medallions of farmed barramundi or ocean trout, cut thick enough to survive 5 minutes of gentle heat without disintegrating.
03
Market — Any firm-fleshed fish available on the day in large cuts — the criterion is flesh density, not species.
04
House — Pre-portioned skin-on fillets of a firm species; acceptable only if cut thick and handled with strict no-stir discipline.
IV

Sensory Tests

◇Sight. Coconut cream has cracked: oil rises to the surface and the cream looks oily and glossy, not wet.
◇Smell. Paste is sufficiently fried: raw sharpness of the aromatics gives way to a deep, toasted fragrance.
◇Sight. Fish is ready to rest off heat: the thickest part still shows a faint trace of pink at its centre.
◇Touch. Fish has rested through carryover: the surface yields to gentle spoon pressure but the medallion holds together without flaking apart.
◇Where it lives or dies. The curry base must be fully seasoned before the fish is added — seasoning after requires the movement that destroys the flesh.
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The dishes this one teaches you, across the cuisines — on every recipe.
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VI

What to Pour

Pouring for British Columbia · ·

A lightly off-dry, aromatic white — Gewurztraminer or Riesling Spätlese — whose residual sweetness and floral lift sit against the herbal paste without competing with the clean marine sweetness of the fish. Alternatively, a cold, neutral lager serves the same palate-clearing function without any flavour interference.

The whole pairing
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Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
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The working kitchen
Cost this recipe
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HACCP brief
Part of The Profession · the food-safety plan
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Sourced through Provenance

The hands behind the plate.

Jeya Brothers
Vancouver · coconut milk
→
Wismettac
Vancouver · palm sugar
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