Gar Fish Green Curry

Every few seasons, we end up with a gar or two in the cooler. It’s an opportunistic thing for us- we usually encounter these prehistoric, long billed, toothy fish while cruising the shallows looking for snakeheads. They will work their way into the grass on a high tide during their seasonal spawning, and oftentimes trap themselves in small finger creeks with only inches of water. When we run into them in these situations, a jab with a spear will sometimes result in a 3 foot long dinosaur fish thrashing around in the boat. 

We usually fry the gar, which has a unique texture, it’s semi firm and somewhat meaty but it does have a very fine grain that can feel semi-mushy. We have found that heating the meat through at a higher temperature firms up the meat and makes for a very pleasant eating experience.

This green curry recipe has become a recurring dish after long and hot days on the water. The entire dish comes together in the time it takes to cook the rice. It’s spicy, creamy without being too heavy, and refreshing yet comforting. We’ve made this curry with various shellfish, fish, and turkey- they’re all good, but we’ve found that it's a great way to serve gar. The semi dense fish holds up in the coconut milk based sauce and offers a meaty texture. We like to go heavy on the thai basil and cilantro, and I always put a few extra hot chilis in mine.

Gar are unique in many ways; they have poisonous eggs, are facultative air breathers, have armor like scales, and long “beaks” with lots of sharp little teeth. This is extremely obvious when it comes to cleaning one. You’ll need to start a cut behind the head then use tin snips or heavy shears to cut through the scales along the back. I’ve read of people using hatchets, axes, and chainsaws to prepare gar for the table, and while I have no doubt that people have done this, I’ve found that processing these smaller gar is a lot less dramatic and not very difficult at all.

Gar Fish Green Curry Recipe

Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

6 tbsp green curry paste (recipe below)

~1 lb gar meat, trimmed, cut into cubes

13.5 ounces coconut milk (1 can)

½ cup light-colored stock (we used turkey)

1 ½ cup oyster mushrooms, dry sauteed (or bamboo shoots)

1 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp brown sugar or palm sugar

Zest of one lime

Thai basil

Cilantro

Chilis

Green Curry Paste:

2 cups chopped jalapenos

1 ½ cup chopped shallots

8 cloves garlic

1 tsp galangal, dried

3” lemongrass, chopped fine

Zest of one lime

½ tsp white pepper, ground

1 tbsp coriander, whole

1 tsp cumin, ground

1 tsp shrimp paste

Combine in a food processor or blender and process until mostly smooth.

Method

Heat a large high sided pan to medium heat. Add ~2 tbsp oil and green curry paste. Fry paste, stirring often until very fragrant and slightly darker in color. Season gar with salt and pepper and add to pan with paste. Adjust heat to lightly brown fish, stirring often to keep paste from sticking to the pan.

Add in coconut milk and stir. Add lime zest, stock, cooked mushrooms, fish sauce, and sugar. Adjust heat to a low simmer, cover partially and cook for 2-4 minutes until fish is cooked through.

Serve with rice, cilantro, thai basil, and chili peppers.