Why not try something different tonight? Take some luscious chunks of cod and plump, juicy prawns and encase them in tin foil. Include some crunchy vegetables, tender pasta, and a flavorful Thai sauce and bake in the oven for 20 minutes for a quick and easy meal.
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Thai seafood bake
These Thai fish parcels are a quick and easy meal that you can have ready in minutes. You will only need a few minutes to prepare the vegetables and assemble the parcels then you just pop it into the oven for 20 minutes and dinner’s done. I’ve even added pre-cooked Asian noodles so you don’t even have to cook the pasta!
I love Thai flavours. And this dish is packed with them. Lemongrass, fish sauce, chilli, sesame, soy – you name it, it’s in there.
The taste is spicy and flavoursome, without being blow-your-head-off hot. And you can adjust the heat to your own taste by adjusting the amount of chilli flakes you add.
Why I think you’ll love it
It’s quick to cook – because it’s made with pre-cooked noodles you don’t have to worry about the time it would take for them to cook. Plus fish cooks for 20 minutes in the oven, so that’s all the cooking time you will need (or 25 minutes if your fish is on the thicker side).
Thai flavours go so well will fish – and this dish delivers restaurant-quality flavours.
It’s economical – fish is one of the cheaper proteins out there, and coupled with a helping of noodles and some crispy vegetables, you will have a meal that tastes great, will satisfy your hunger, but won’t break the bank.
Clean-up is easy – everything is cooked in foil so there are no pans to wash.
What you will need
Equipment
You don’t need much by way of equipment – just a small bowl for mixing the sauce together, and a baking tray to hold the fish parcels.
Ingredients
The recipe as given will feed 4 people. To feed more, simply add extra fish, prawns and vegetables and double up the sauce ingredients (except the chilli – adjust that to your own taste).
**You can find the complete list of ingredients and full instructions for making these Thai fish parcels on the printable recipe card at the end of this post**
Cod – I like to use a nice firm flaky fish such as cod or haddock, but you could use any firm fish such as hake, kingklip, or even salmon. You will need approximately 113 grams (or 4 ounces) of fish per person. The fish should be filleted and the skin removed.
Prawns – these are frozen raw prawns that have been shelled and deveined. I buy them in packs of 160 grams (which is about 5 and a half ounces) and divide the pack into 4. Depending on the size of the prawns you should get between 5 and 6 prawns per person. Let the prawns defrost before using them in this recipe.
Pre-cooked noodles – I don’t normally buy this type of noodle as I prefer to cook dried noodles. However, these pre-cooked noodles really save on time when you’re making this dish and they soak up the sauce beautifully. If you prefer to use dried noodles you should precook them first, but leave them slightly undercooked so that they can finish off cooking in the oven.
The noodles I used came in a 300-gram packet (just under 10 and a half ounces) and were packed into 2 individual bags of 150 grams each. One bag was sufficient for 2 portions.
Vegetables – the choice here is up to you. I’ve used pak choi, sugar snap peas and sweet red pepper. You can vary the vegetables to suit your own taste and you will need half a cup of mixed vegetables per portion. Why not try carrot sticks, shredded Chinese cabbage, sliced mushrooms, beansprouts or finely sliced bell pepper? Just bear the cooking time in mind when choosing which vegetables to use – they need to cook in 20 minutes.
Spring onions – for garnish (these are optional)
For the sauce
Sesame oil – this is used for flavouring and has quite a strong flavour so you will not need a lot. A teaspoon is quite sufficient. If you double the recipe you might not need to double the sesame oil.
Mirin – this is a sweet Japanese rice wine. If you don’t have mirin you can substitute it with rice wine vinegar.
Fish sauce – this adds an umami taste to the dish. If you don’t have fish sauce you can substitute it with oyster sauce.
Soy sauce – I used dark soy sauce.
Chilli flakes – These are just dried chilli flakes. If you prefer you can substitute with freshly chopped red chilli to your own taste. Be careful not to add too much extra chilli if you are doubling the recipe.
Ginger, garlic and lemongrass paste – for convenience I used ready-minced ginger, garlic and lemongrass from jars. You can substitute with the equivalent amount of fresh if you prefer.
Honey – for a touch of sweetness
Cornflour – for thickening. Adding cornflour into the sauce before spooning it over the fish means the sauce thickens as it cooks so you are not left with fish swimming in a pool of thin liquid.
What to do
Prepare the sauce by measuring all the ingredients in a small bowl. Stir well to remove any lumps that may be in the cornflour.
Prepare the vegetables. Cut the red pepper into thin rings, and slice the sugar snaps thinly on the diagonal. Separate the pak choi into individual leaves and rinse well to remove any dirt.
Take a sheet of tin foil (large enough to hold the fish and vegetables) and place a helping of precooked noodles in the middle. Top with one or two leaves of pak choi and a few chopped peas and red pepper rings.
If you are using dried noodles you should precook them first, but take them out of the water while they are still slightly al dente.
Top the vegetables with a piece of fish, and arrange 5 or 6 prawns on top. Spoon over one-quarter of the sauce.
Bring the sides of the tin foil up and make a double fold along the top, then fold the sides of the tin foil over to enclose the fish completely. There should be no gaps for the steam to escape.
Place the tin foil packets on a baking tray and bake in a preheated oven (200C / 400F) for 20 to 25 minutes. The exact time will depend on the thickness of your fish.
Once the time is up, remove the fish from the oven. Open the packets carefully – there will be hot steam inside and you don’t want to burn yourself.
The cornflour will have caused the sauce to thicken, so the fish should not be swimming in liquid.
Fold the edges of the tin foil to form a dish and transfer each one to a plate. Serve hot with a fresh green salad on the side. Garnish with finely chopped spring onions if desired.
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Thai fish parcels FAQ
If you intend to freeze these Thai fish parcels, you can freeze them once they have been assembled (before they have been cooked). Place the tinfoil parcels into a strong plastic bag and freeze them for up to 3 months. Cook from frozen for 30 minutes at the temperature given in the recipe.
However – if you do this, please buy fresh fish and prawns that have not been previously frozen.
You can assemble these fish parcels the day before you want to bake them, and store them in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook them.
The cooking time for this recipe is not very long, so to make sure the vegetables are cooked through I like to slice them into smaller pieces.
Please note that even though the vegetables are cut into small slices they will still be ‘crunchy’ when the fish is cooked. If you prefer your vegetables to be more well cooked I would suggest you leave them out of the parcels and cook them to your liking in a separate pan.
No, you could substitute the noodles with pre-cooked rice instead. Here are my instructions on how to cook rice in the microwave.
Save for later
If you would like to make these Thai fish parcels, why not save the recipe to one of your Pinterest boards so you can find it easily? Just click on the image below.
Alternatively, you can save the recipe by clicking on the floating heart icon on the right-hand side of the screen.
Other recipes
If you enjoyed this recipe, here are a few other fish recipes you may like:
- Cod mornay with prawns – oven-baked tender fillets of cod and plump juicy prawns in a thick cheesy sauce.
- Pan-fried fish fillets with a light batter – forget thick stodgy beer batter – the batter for this fish is light and crispy and utterly delicious.
- Mediterranean oven-baked cod with marinara sauce – oven-baked chunky cod fillets marinated in olive oil, capers and pesto and smothered in tasty marinara sauce.
- Cheesy fish pie with a crispy topping – succulent fillets of fish and seafood in a cheesy sauce, covered with creamy mashed potatoes and a special crispy topping
- Fish Milanese with a buttery garlic and parsley sauce – juicy cod fillets, marinated in lemon and onions, coated in crispy breadcrumbs and covered in a buttery garlic and parsley sauce.
There are plenty more fish recipes on the site – just select Fish and Seafood from the drop-down menu under ‘By Ingredient’ at the top of the page.
The recipe
Thai fish parcels
(Click the stars to rate this recipe)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound / 450 grams skinless cod fillets (4 pieces)
- 5½ ounces / 160 grams frozen raw prawns headless, shelled and deveined (about 20 prawns)
- 10½ ounces / 300 grams pre-cooked noodles or use dried noodles and cook them yourself slightly less than the time on the packet.
- 1 head pak choi broken into leaves
- 1 cup sugar snap peas
- ½ cup sweet red pepper
- 2 spring onions for garnish (optional)
Sauce
- 1 tablespoon mirin or rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic about 2 cloves fresh garlic
- 1 teaspoon lemongrass paste
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce or oyster sauce
- ½ teaspoon ginger paste
- ¼ teaspoon dried chilli flakes or to your own taste
- 1 teaspoon cornflour / cornstarch
Instructions
- Measure all the sauce ingredients into a small bowl and mix well to remove any lumps from the cornflour.1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 tablespoon mirin, 1 teaspoon fish sauce, 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce, ¼ teaspoon dried chilli flakes, ½ teaspoon ginger paste, 1 teaspoon minced garlic, 1 teaspoon lemongrass paste, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon cornflour / cornstarch
- Prepare the vegetables. Cut the red pepper into thin rings, and slice the sugar snaps thinly on the diagonal. Separate the pak choi into individual leaves and rinse well to remove any dirt.1 head pak choi, 1 cup sugar snap peas, ½ cup sweet red pepper
- Take a sheet of tinfoil (large enough to hold the fish and vegetables) and place a helping of precooked noodles in the middle. Top with one or two leave of pak choi and a few chopped peas and red pepper rings.If you are using dried noodles you should precook them first, but take them out of the water while they are still slightly al dente.10½ ounces / 300 grams pre-cooked noodles
- Top the vegetables with a piece of fish, and arrange 5 or 6 prawns on top. Spoon over one-quarter of the prepared sauce. (Stir the sauce first to redistribute the cornflour).1 pound / 450 grams skinless cod fillets, 5½ ounces / 160 grams frozen raw prawns
- Bring the sides of the tinfoil up and make a double fold along the top, then fold the sides of the tinfoil over to enclose the fish completely. There should be no gaps for the steam to escape.
- Repeat with the remaining ingredients to make 4 fish parcels in total.
- Place the tinfoil packets on a baking tray and bake in a preheated oven (200C / 400F) for 20 to 25 minutes. The exact time will depend on the thickness of your fish.
- Once the time is up, remove the fish from the oven. Open the packets carefully – there will be hot steam inside and you don't want to burn yourself.
- Fold the edges of the tinfoil to form a dish and transfer each parcel to a plate. Serve hot with a fresh green salad on the side. Garnish with finely chopped spring onions if desired.2 spring onions
Notes
However – if you do this, please buy fresh fish and prawns that have not been previously frozen. If you prefer, you can add cooked rice to the fish parcels instead of the noodles.
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutrition information has been calculated using an on-line calculator, and is intended for information and guidance purposes only. If the nutrition information is important to you, you should consider calculating it yourself, using your preferred tool.
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