Kahawai Oka

Kahawai is such an underrated fish. Plentiful and easlily caught. It was the first fish I had ever caught as a boy with my great uncle at the river mouth in Gisborne. It always brings back great memories nowadays when I catch one in Auckland.

Ingredients

2	Fresh kahawai fillets, Two large fillets. Use 4 fillets if smaller fish (Main)
2	Spring onions, Finely chopped
8	Cherry tomatoes, Quartered
½	Capsicums, Red or yellow
3	Red chillies, Finely chopped. Use more if desired.
1 bottle	Chilli sauce, New Zealand made of course!
3 large	Lemons, Use limes if you have a tree
1 can	Coconut cream, Small can. Look for one with no preservatives, such as the

Directions

1. Add quartered tomatoes, half a diced capsicum, chopped spring onion, chopped red chilli, and 3/4 of the large bunch of chopped coriander to a large bowl. Reserve 1/4 of the coriander for garnish. Place bowl in fridge.
2. Fillet your large fresh Kahawai. Use two fish if they are smaller. Remove and disgard red portions of flesh from around the back bone. Cut the fillets into small 1 cm cubes.
3. Add cubed Kahawai fillets to a fresh bowl. Place the juice of 3 large lemons or more if smaller to the bowl of fish. You can use limes if lucky enough to have a tree in fruit. Leave for 3 minutes and stir occasionally to keep all the cubed fish coated in juice. After three minutes put the fish into a strainer and strain off the juice. Disgard the juice.
4. Remove bowl from fridge containing the chopped tomatoes, spring onion, chilli, coriander, and capsicum that you prepared earlier. Add to this bowl the fish and mix together with a fork.
5. Slowly spoon in the coconut cream and stir. You want to achieve a light to medium coating of coconut cream. You don't want the dish swimming in coconut cream and overpowering it.
6. Taste the dish. Add your favourite New Zealand made chill sauce to taste and mix.
7. Serve in small bowls and add the remaining coriander as garnish to each bowl. Enjoy.