Barra in three flavour sauce, served with coconut rice and mango salad.

Barramundi, or simply barra, is a prized sport and table fish across the Top End of Australia. They are feracious feeders and can grow to over a meter in length. The Barramundi (lates calcarifer) is a catadromous fish, meaning it can live happily in both salt and fresh water, but needs saltwater to spawn.

Picture of man with barramundi
My father at 83 years old, with his first ever barramundi – caught in Darwin Harbour, NT

The colour and flavour difference between a salt water barra and fresh water impoundment barra can be stark. Saltwater fish a silver skinned and pearly white fleshed, meanwhile a fish that has spent many years in fresh water turns dark skinned and the flesh can be grey. If you aren’t in a position to catch your own barra, or buy fresh wild saltwater barra, then the farmed fish from Humpty Doo Barra is the closest I’ve ever found to the quality of saltwater fish.

A characteristic saltwater barra, yellow tail and fins and chrome sliver skin.
Print Recipe

Barramundi in three flavour sauce with mango salad

Crispy fried barramundi fillet in a Thai style three flavour sauce, sweet, sour, spicy. Inspired by the outstanding Thai Crispy Whole Fish at Jimmy Shu's Hanuman restaurant in Darwin. This recipe can also be used for whole fish like small snapper or bream.
Prep Time25 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Contemporary Australian
Keyword: barra, barramundi, crispy, deep fried, fish, sour, spicy, sweet, Thai, three flavour
Servings: 4 people

Ingredients

  • 800 grams barramundi fillet fresh wild caugth saltwater fish is best, but Humpty Doo Barra farms fish is almost as good.
  • 1/4 cup corn flour for dusting the fish
  • salt
  • Peanut or rice bran oil for frying

Sauce

  • 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 2 red chillies add 2-3 birdseye or Thai chillies if you want a spicier sauce
  • 1 tbsp fish sauce
  • 1 tbsp tamarind puree
  • 3 tbsp water add the tamarind puree to this and mix well
  • 60 grams palm sugar or light brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp lemongrass paste
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 6 cherry tomatoes

Garnish

  • 1 small bunch basil
  • 1 small bunch flat leaf parsley

Mango salad

  • 2 spring onions (scallions)
  • 2 mangoes
  • 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1/2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 1/2 tsp sesame oil
  • small handful cashews unsalted or raw

Instructions

Mango Salad

  • Prepare the mango salad by peeling, slicing the mangoes. Finely slice the spring onions, and 4-6 basil leaves, and toss through the mango. Dress with combined soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and sesame oil.
  • Set aside, not adding the cashews until ready to serve.

Three flavour sauce

  • Finely chop the garlic, slice the chillies and tomatoes, and crush or slice the palm sugar
  • Add all of the cause ingredients to a small saucepan and bring to a slow simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally

Barra

  • Heat peanut or rice bran oil in a large pot or wok. Ensuring there is enough oil to cover the fish
  • Cross-hatch the flesh side of the barramundi fillet every 2cm or so, to a depth of approximately half the thickness of the fish and dust in cornflour
  • Once the oil is 185-190℃ add the fish to the oil skin side down and cook until the skin is crispy and submerged fish golden (approximately 5 minutes) before carefully turning over
  • Once cooked, place the fillet on large plate, pour over the warm sauce and garnish with herbs and sliced chillies, and place in centre of table allowing people to cut and serve their own portions.
  • Plate up individual portions of coconut rice and mango salad.

Notes

I can not stand the taste of coriander (cilantro), to me it tastes like dirty soap and anything but the smallest amount can ruin a dish. Lots of Asian dishes call for liberal amount of coriander, and when cooking anything that does I will substitute the coriander with 50/50 basil and flat-leaf parsley. Give it a go and adjust the ratio to suit yourself.