Ping Pa

Ingredients

The fish

• 1whole fish
• about 1.2 kg
• tilapia, snakehead or sea bass
• scaled and gutted
• gills removed

The stuffing

• 4 stalkslemongrass
• bruised and folded
• a bunch of spring onions
• a handful of coriander
• including roots if you have them
• 6kaffir lime leaves
• optional
• a thumb of galangal, sliced
• optional

The salt crust

• about 200 g coarse salt
• or rock salt
• 2 tablespoonswater
• or a little flour paste
• to help it stick

For grilling

• a split bamboo stick
• or two long skewers
• and string
• or a hinged fish cage

To serve

• sticky rice
• jeow, a pounded dipping sauce
• raw vegetables and herbs
• lettuce, cucumber, long beans
• lime wedges

Directions

1. Use a firm whole fish. The eyes should be clear and slightly bulging. Brown or grey gills mean it is old. The flesh should spring back when pressed. Scale it if it has not been scaled. Cut along the belly and remove the innards. Remove the gills, which taste bitter. Rinse the cavity thoroughly. Cut from the mouth down through the head.
2. Continue along the belly. Cut deep slashes into each side instead. Use the whole stalks here. Fold each stalk in half or knot it. It also keeps them together.
3. Tear them to release the oil. Pack the cavity full. It should be genuinely stuffed. Tie the fish to the stick with string. Wet the outside of the fish lightly. Press coarse salt all over the skin. Coat it thickly. Use coarse salt, not fine.
4. Let it burn down to embers. That takes twenty to thirty minutes. Grill outdoors in open air only. Keep water or sand nearby. Keep children and animals away. Do not use petrol to light or revive a fire.
5. Keep it about twenty centimetres from the coals. Close enough to cook, far enough not to burn. Adjust it as you go. Lay it flat on a grill over the embers instead. Use indirect heat if you can. Turn the fish every ten minutes. Give it thirty to forty minutes. Pull at the dorsal fin. It should come away cleanly when cooked.
6. Brush the salt crust off. Lay the fish on a platter. Pull the stick out. It has done its job and it is fibrous. Take it out or leave it for decoration. Bone it properly for small children.
7. Roast the stuffed salted fish at two hundred degrees. Give it about thirty minutes for a fish this size. Finish it under a hot grill for colour. It keeps a day refrigerated.

Technique

• Grill it upright beside the embers rather than over them. Radiant heat from the side is gentler than direct heat from below, so the fish cooks through without burning and the fat drips away instead of into flames.
• Use coarse salt, never fine. Coarse salt sits on the skin and forms a crust that seasons and shields; fine salt penetrates and oversalts the flesh. The crust looks like far too much salt, but it is brushed off and the skin discarded, which is why it works.
• Bruise the lemongrass with the back of a knife and fold or knot the stalks. Unbruised stalks release almost nothing.
• Stuff it genuinely full. The aromatics perfume the flesh from inside and a meagre stuffing does very little.
• Split the fish from the mouth down along the belly and open it like a book without separating it, leaving the backbone in. That lets the stuffing in and heat reach the centre. Deep slashes in each side are the easier alternative and work.
• Clamp the fish in split bamboo or between two skewers and tie it. That holds it flat and closed, lets you stand it upright and makes turning possible — a hinged fish cage does the same job and is widely sold.
• Turn it every ten minutes and give it thirty to forty. Check by pushing a knife in near the spine — the flesh should be opaque throughout and flake from the bone — and by pulling the dorsal fin, which comes away cleanly when cooked.
• Charcoal produces carbon monoxide, which has no colour, smell or taste and kills in enclosed spaces. Grill outdoors only, never in a garage, tent or shed, and never bring a used grill inside. Keep water or sand nearby and never use petrol to light or revive a fire.
• Ask a grocer for coriander with the roots on. The root is more intense than the leaf and is used across Southeast Asia, but Western shops usually cut it off.
• The lemongrass is not eaten. It is fibrous and it has done its job.
• Raw or undercooked freshwater fish in the region can carry liver flukes, a documented concern in Laos and northeast Thailand. Thorough cooking kills them and this dish grills the fish through completely, so it does not arise here — the atlas records the fact so it is not misapplied to a cooked dish.
• The Mekong supports an enormous inland fishery feeding very large numbers of people. Extensive dam construction has documented effects on fish migration, sediment and water levels, with catches declining in places. The atlas records that the concern exists and takes no further position.
• A whole grilled fish carries bones throughout. Warn anyone unused to it and bone it properly for children.

Substitutions

• Sea bass, bream or any firm whole fish replaces tilapia or snakehead.
• A hinged fish cage replaces split bamboo and is far easier.
• Laying it flat on a grill over indirect heat replaces the upright method.
• An oven at 200 degrees finished under a grill replaces the fire, at the cost of the smoke.
• Galangal and kaffir lime leaves are optional; lemongrass is not.
• Any jeow, or a simple lime, fish sauce and chilli dip, serves as the sauce.

Variations

• Ping kai is the grilled chicken sold from the same stalls.
• Mok pa steams fish in a banana leaf parcel instead of grilling it.
• Pla pao in Thailand is the same salt-crusted grilled fish.
• Jeow mak len, the charred tomato dip, is the classic accompaniment.
• Larb pa is the minced raw or cooked fish salad from the same fish.
• Tam mak hoong, the green papaya salad, is eaten at the same meal.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ping Pa?

Ping Pa is a street food from Laos: whole Mekong fish stuffed with lemongrass, salt-crusted and grilled upright on a stick.

How long does Ping Pa take to make?

Ping Pa takes 30 minutes of preparation and 40 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 4. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Ping Pa?

Yes, within limits. Sea bass, bream or any firm whole fish replaces tilapia or snakehead. A hinged fish cage replaces split bamboo and is far easier. Laying it flat on a grill over indirect heat replaces the upright method. An oven at 200 degrees finished under a grill replaces the fire, at the cost of the smoke. Galangal and kaffir lime leaves are optional; lemongrass is not. Any jeow, or a simple lime, fish sauce and chilli dip, serves as the sauce.

What is the most important thing to get right in Ping Pa?

Continue along the belly. Cut deep slashes into each side instead. Use the whole stalks here. Fold each stalk in half or knot it. It also keeps them together.