Thai Seafood Recipes: How to Cook the Best Dishes

Spicy curries, tropical coconut, juicy mango, and fresh seafood. Do these phrases have your mouth watering? If they do, you are not alone. I have a cure for those Thai food cravings that I will share with you. By cooking Thai seafood recipes at home, you can have these delicacies whenever you want them. Are you afraid these seafood recipes are too complicated? Not anymore! I have simplified these Thai fish recipes, so the can be quick weeknight meals, made with items you can usually find at the local store. So what is your excuse? You have to make dinner anyway, why not choose from these delicious seafood dishes?

Thai cuisine, like many others has been influenced over the years by other cultures. Boiled dishes, spicy salads, pounded foods, and curries, are traditional cuisines. Whereas stir-fries, deep fried foods, and steamed dishes such as dumplings were brought from China. You can also start your meal with some egg rolls or steamed dumplings.

Thai seafood recipes: Red salmon curry

While I have altered this seafood main dish significantly, so that it is no longer an authentic Thai seafood recipe, it is very tasty. It actually has more vegetables than the original version. The original recipe used chicken, but we prefer cooking it with fish. I usually keep frozen peas on hand which is an easy way to add vegetables to main dish recipes. I also keep fresh spinach on hand. It stays fresh longer for salads than lettuce, and it is easy to reach in and grab handfuls to add to cooked meals. Instead of making my own curry paste, I always buy it pre made for convenience.

Ingredients for Thai fish curry, red

• 1 2/3 cup coconut milk
• 3 tbsp. red curry paste
• 1 1/2 lb. salmon, skinned and de-boned, broken into chunks
• 4 shredded lime leaves
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 tbsp. fish sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 8 oz. torn fresh spinach
• 8 fresh sweet basil leaves

How to make red Thai fish curry

1. Heat 1/3 of the coconut milk in a wok over medium high heat until bubbling. Add the curry paste combining with the milk until well blended.
2. Once the curry and coconut milk are well mixed, add the salmon to coat in the sauce. Then add the rest of the coconut milk, water, fish sauce, and sugar.
3. After that mix in the spinach, peas, and lime leaves. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve the Thai curry with rice. The curry sauce gives plain rice a spicy flavor.

For fish Thai green curry recipe, coconut rice, side dishes, and dessert, explore my previous post on Thai cooking.

Which fish is best to cook in curry?

Typically, natives use threadfin bream in their Thai seafood recipes, but any firm fish can be used. We often use halibut.

How is Thai basil different from regular basil?

I have grown both of these types of basil in my garden. What we consider “regular” basil is also known as sweet basil. This basil is the kind that is often used in Italian cooking, although it is used in other cuisines as well. Sweet basil sprouts bright green, large, oval leaves. When the plant goes to seed it displays small white flowers. Whereas Thai basil displays darker, more narrow, leaves. It grows tiny purple flowers when going to seed. Thai basil has a spicier taste than sweet basil.

Thai seafood recipes: Pineapple shrimp curry

This is one of my favorite spicy Thai seafood recipes. The Thai seafood sauce that is created by the mixture of ingredients with the red curry paste has that spicy, but sweet sensation that is uniquely Thai.

Ingredients for Thai seafood curry recipe

• 2 cups coconut milk
• 2 tbsp red curry paste
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 Thai red chili
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1/2 lb. shrimp
• 1/2 lb. boneless, skinless salmon, cut into bite size pieces
• 10 cherry tomatoes
• 15oz can pineapple chunks
• 8 basil leaves

How to make Thai seafood recipe for curry

1. Most importantly, prepare ingredients before starting. Then heat a wok to medium.
2. When wok is hot, pour 1/3 cup coconut milk into the pan and heat until bubbling. Once it is bubbling, mix in the curry paste.
3. After that, add the rest of the coconut milk, water, chili, and fish sauce. Simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Next add the shrimp, fish, tomatoes, and pineapple, continuing to cook for another 5 minutes. Add in half the basil.
5. Serve with rice, and garnish with the remaining basil.

For an easy fried rice, you can fry cold cooked rice in some coconut oil and add some green onions and a hint of fish sauce to go with your Thai seafood curry.

I have included these sponsored links for woks in case you don’t already have one.

Thai seafood recipes: Pumpkin shrimp soup

What ingredients do I need for pumpkin soup?

If you have uncooked shrimp, you can cook them in water and then reuse the water for the fish stock. Just make sure to rinse the shrimp thoroughly before cooking. I f you don’t have fish stock, you can use either chicken stock or water.

• 3/4 cup water
• 1 diced onion
• 1 inch piece grated ginger
• 2 Thai chilies
• 12 oz. fish stock
• 12 oz. coconut milk
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 8 basil leaves
• 8 oz. shelled, cooked shrimp

Directions for Thai shrimp and pumpkin soup

1. Pour the stock and coconut milk into a soup pan and heat until almost boiling.
2. When it is about to boil, add onion, ginger, chilies, fish sauce, sugar, and black pepper.
3. Once the mixture boils, simmer for 5 minutes.
4. After that, add the pumpkin and half the basil. Cook for 10 minutes. Then add the shrimp, and cook until shrimp are heated through. Serve with remaining basil.

You can serve this on its own or over a bowl of rice. We had leftover soup one day, but we ran out of rice. Since my husband is not a huge fan of bothy soups, I reheated the soup on the stove, adding in about 1/8 oz. of uncooked soba noodles. The noodles cooked in the soup while it was heating. And we had a delicious lunch.

Thai seafood recipes: Grilled fish with hot and sour sauce

Ingredients for grilled fish

• 2 fish fillets with skins on
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro
• 2 crushed garlic cloves
• 4 tbsp oyster sauce
• fresh lime juice from 2 limes
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
• 4 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 Thai chilies
• 2 tbsp brown sugar

How to make grilled fish

1. Begin by mixing cilantro, garlic, pepper, and oyster sauce. Smother fleshy side of the fish fillet with sauce, and set it aside for 30 minutes to marinate.
2. Meanwhile, mix fish sauce, lime juice, chilies, sugar, and mint together in a bowl, and set aside.
3. When fish has marinated, cook on a hot grill, skin side down for about 10-15 minutes. In short, make sure internal temperature reaches 145 F.
4. Then serve fish with hot and sour sauce and a side salad. In addition, the hot and sour sauce makes a good salad dressing.

Thai seafood recipes: Basil fish stir fry

A stir fry is one of the best Thai seafood recipes if you are low on time. They literally only take minutes to cook. You just need to plan ahead so that your fish is thawed.

Stir fry ingredients

• 1 lb. firm white fish such as halibut, cut into chunks
• 2 crushed garlic cloves
• 1 sliced onion
• 15 basil leaves
• 3 Thai chilies
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 4 tbsp coconut oil

Directions for Thai seafood stir fry

1. Make sure all ingredients are prepped before cooking. Heat half the oil in a wok. When oil is hot, stir fry fish until they are cooked through, about 3-5 minutes. The fish should be white not translucent. Once fish is cooked, remove it to a plate.
2. Add the remaining oil to the wok and cook onion, half the basil, chilies, and garlic, stir frying for about 3 minutes.
3. Return the fish to the wok and mix in the fish sauce and sugar.
4. Serve with remaining basil as a garnish.

We served this with some whole wheat soba noodles mixed with peas and a little soy sauce. The noodles only take a few minutes to cook. We added the frozen peas to the cooking water. Once the noodles were done, we drained the water and just tossed the noodles and peas with a little soy sauce for flavoring. Sometimes we use hoisin sauce instead of soy. Get creative, use whatever sauce you like.

Thai fish cakes

Thai fish cakes are one of my favorites. They are fairly easy to make, as long as you have a food processor. They taste delicious served with sweet chili sauce. We like to serve a light salad as a side dish to make this a light dinner.

What you will need to make fish cakes

• 1 lb. halibut or cod fish
• 2 tsp red curry paste
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/2 an egg beaten
• coconut oil

How to make fish cakes

You may add salt and pepper along with the egg. However, I find that the rich flavors of the curry paste, fish sauce, and cilantro, give these dish all the flavor it needs.

1. Skin and de-bone fish, further cutting into chunks. Most importantly, pat dry with paper towels.
2. Process in a food processor for about 30 seconds to start breaking up fish. Add in the curry paste, fish sauce, cilantro, and cornstarch, while scraping down the sides of the processor.
3. Process again, until ingredients ae mixed together. Then add egg.
4. Once again scrape down the sides, and process to incorporate the egg.
5. After that, put enough coconut oil in a pan to lightly cover the bottom and heat over medium high. While the oil is heating, form small patties with the fish mixture. You should be able to make about 8 patties.
6. Once the oil is hot, fry patties for about 2-3 minutes on each side. When the internal temperature reaches 145 F and they are golden brown on each side they are done.
7. Serve with sweet Thai chili sauce for dipping.

We like the additional flavor coconut oil gives Thai dishes, so these is our preferred cooking oil. It also has a high smoke point so it is good for frying since my kitchen doesn’t have a hood to suck out smoke and steam.

If you need a food processor check out the sponsored link below. I also use this spiralizer for making noodles with vegetables, and this pasta maker when I want to be really creative and make my own noodles.

One of my favorite things about cooking nowadays, is being creative. You don’t need to worry about creating an authentic meal. In a recent post on anime cooking, I cooked a lot of Japanese recipes that were heavily influenced by western foods. I like the idea of creating my own unique fusion cuisine, mixing a bit of east meets west.

Donna Emperador is a travel and food blogger and copywriter. Donna believes in learning about different cultures while sharing good food and cocktails. She has lived in South Florida for over 20 years and enjoys spending time exploring the road to find unique places to share with readers. She can be found on Facebook,  Instagram, and Pinterest.