This soft, flaky sea bass in a delicious Thai style broth with jasmine rice is just what you need when you want a hug in a bowl.
Although frying or baking seem to be more popular methods of cooking sea bass, poaching is a massively underrated method. It results in perfect textured sea bass, every time, in just a few minutes. It sucks up all the flavour from your poaching liquid which – in this instance – also happens to be extremely tasty.
When served with a big portion of jasmine rice and that broth rich with flavours of ginger and lemongrass, it’s a wonderful dinner.

The Ingredients
- The broth – the broth has a base of vegetable stock (or use water and a vegetable stock cube, you could also use chicken stock) with shallots, chilli, ginger and lemongrass added, plus some soy sauce and fish sauce. Light soy sauce is best if you have it. The broth is finished with some fresh coriander. You could also use Thai basil if you wish.
- The vegetables – I’ve used mushrooms and pak Choi here. You could also add tender stem broccoli and sugar snap peas if you fancy it.
- The fish – sea bass fillets with the skin still on are best. You can use skinless, but you won’t get as much flavour.
- The rice – jasmine rice with its awesome sticky texture is best for this dish – it sucks up all of that delicious broth so well! You can use plain white rice, but I’d really advise using jasmine rice if you can. You can either use microwaveable or raw jasmine rice – just cook according to packet instructions before serving.

More sea bass recipes to enjoy:
- Pan Fried Sea Bass with Lentils
- Pan Fried Sea Bass with Olive Linguine
- Thai Green Noodle Soup with Pan Fried Sea Bass
Poached Sea Bass with Jasmine Rice

Sea bass poached in a broth with flavours of ginger, lemongrass and chilli, with mushrooms and pak Choi, served with jasmine rice.
Ingredients
- 1 litre vegetable stock
- 4 inch piece of ginger
- 2 sticks lemongrass
- 4 shallots
- 4 spring onions
- 1 green chilli
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 large bunch coriander
- 1 pak choi
- 120 g shiitake mushrooms
- 2 sea bass fillets
- 250 g cooked jasmine rice
Instructions
- Pour the stock into a large casserole dish and put on a medium heat – bring to a simmer.
- Chop the shallots, ginger, spring onions and chilli. Add to the stock. Bruise the lemongrass with the back of a knife and add that too.
- Add the fish sauce, soy sauce, chopped mushrooms, chopped pak choi and chopped coriander stalks.
- Place the fish gently, skin down, into the stock. Simmer for about 5 minutes, depending on how thick your fish is, until cooked all the way through.
- Chop the coriander leaves and scatter over the top for the last 30 seconds of cooking.
- To serve, place a large spoonful of rice in the middle of a bowl, top with the fish and then ladle over as much of the delicious stock as you can.
Video
Nutrition
Calories: 683kcalCarbohydrates: 62gProtein: 108gFat: 11gSaturated Fat: 5gPolyunsaturated Fat: 7gMonounsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 350mgSodium: 3594mgPotassium: 2925mgFiber: 5gSugar: 12gVitamin A: 2491IUVitamin C: 16mgCalcium: 204mgIron: 10mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

A really underrated and delicious way of cooking sea bass