Sunday 24 April 2011

Simple steamed fish




Simple & tasty steamed fish.

PREP TIME 10 Min
COOK TIME 15 Min
READY IN 25 Min

SERVINGS & SCALING
Original recipe yield: Serves 2 as a main course

INGREDIENTS
2 fillets of red snapper / cod (or any other non-fishy fish)
Mirin, enough to rub over the surfaces of the fish
Spring onions, chopped or cut into 2 inch pieces
Sea salt
Pepper
Garlic, finely chopped OR 1 tablespoon garlic paste
Ginger, finely chopped OR 1 tablespoon ginger paste
Sesame oil, drizzle
Chilli powder, optional

DIRECTIONS
1. Firstly, wash and then marinate the fish fillets with mirin, rub with sea salt, pepper, garlic and ginger. In this recipe, I used red snapper, and marinated it for at least an hour before steaming. Previously, I have used cod which I find to be a very excellent choice for people who hate the fishy taste of fish. For that reason, cod (less fishy than snapper) hardly needs to be marinated. You just rub the ingredients (mirin, salt, pepper, garlic and ginger) on the fish and you can steam the cod in ten minutes time.

2. Boil water in a pot. Arrange the fish in a bowl (or other appropriate saucer for steaming). Place the spring onions over the fish and drizzle some sesame oil over it.

3. Once water is boiling, lower the bowl into the pot carefully and close the pot with a lid.

4. For fish fillets of usual thickness, after 15 mins, you can test whether it's cooked by putting a fork through. If the fork comes out clean, the fish is cooked. Otherwise, if the fork has sticky or rubbery residue, put the lid back on and continue cooking until it's done.

When it's cooked, serve with white rice and some side vegetables.

TIPS
Note: Instead of putting ginger, for a more western flavour, you can sprinkle some italian herbs as well on the fish as part of its marinate. I have tried it before and it tastes equally heavenly!

You can add some chilli powder into the marinate for some slight kick. Be careful not to overpower the taste of the fish though. Chilli lovers can also put a couple of red chillis with slits on the fish before steaming.

I personally prefer to use cod instead of snapper, as it's easier to serve it without marination. Cod has a very nice flavour (so does red snapper, but cod wins hands down) and is suited for people who are adverse to the fishy taste of certain types of fish.

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