Fast forward 20 years (ack, that hurt to type), Rich and I recently purchased a rice cooker/veggie steamer. While reading the manual - yes I am one of those people that read the manual fully - I learned that I could steam fish in there. What?? Steam fish? WOohoO!
So while looking up recipes for steamed fish, I found this handy dandy video that looked so snazzy and easy. Click here for the video that inspired my dinner. I decided that if I would happen to find a bamboo steamer while at the asian market, I would consider purchasing one. Note that I also have dreams of one day making dim sum so it was perfect. :)
I decided on a recipe by Jaden Hair who is quite a popular Asian food blogger and chef. Her recipe for chinese steamed fish looked easy-peasy yet very flavorful. So I made my way to LeeLee's which is our local asian market and made the scary purchase of two whole red snappers. Holy crap. What an interesting experience! I had no idea what I was doing but thankfully the kind men behind the counter took care of me, although they made sure to giggle loudly at both my confusion and shyness. And thankfully they beheaded the fish, scaled and cleaned them for me. Yeah! The only thing I did when I came home was check for any more scales and filet them open. The down side? Bone in.
While at LeeLee's, I did end up scoring a bamboo steamer for $12.99 and I just couldn't resist. This is what my stove top looked like - fancy, huh?
What an adventure! The recipe was fairly simple and I encourage you all to try it! Steamed fish is very healthy, very tender and flaky and altogether a lot of yumminess. Here is the fish right before I took it out...
See the steam clouding my lens? All the other yumminess in there is simply cilantro, sliced ginger and scallions (green onions). The fish is also seasoned with salt/pepper. The recipe does come with a 30 second sauce that is incredibly tasty. The final product that was accompanied by my husband's stir fried bok choy looked a bit like this...
It was deee-lish! And I'm not even a huge fish fan but over this past month, I've been trying it out more and have been really liking it. This was not fishy by any means (due to the ginger) and was seasoned just right. Rich's biggest beef were the bones of course. I grew up eating fish on the bone so I was able to help him sort it out but he asked for boneless fish next time so I'll see what I can figure out.
So if you're feeling adventurous, try it out!
Today, as you might be able to tell, was a much better day. I decided to make it a better day (ps - maybe my 'make it a good day' post 2 days ago was karma) and so I made sure to keep busy with crafting, errand running and cooking. Amen for having the ability to choose a better day for oneself. And of course it ended well with a beautiful meal.
Have a great week!
5 comments:
I too bought a bamboo steamer at LeeLee's! Now I must try this whole fish thing out. Looks SOOO good!
Looks so good Kuv. We made the recipe from Steaming Kitchen too, and it was really yummy.
To remove some of the fishy smell, place fish in a bowl, add salt and turn the fish around in the bowl a couple of times. Now wash the fish in a couple of changes of water. That's the way we prep the fish in Mangalore before cooking.
It's so good Heather! Let me know how yours turns out. We didn't do the last step and it still turned out great.
Mum, glad we all had the same dinner! Ours wasn't fishy smell at all - thank goodness. I was having a hard enough time handling the fish itself. I still had to chop off the top section because it was a still too head-like for me. :)
I'm sold! I just happened to click past a cooking show last night where they were steaming fish in a bamboo basket like that. Now with your endorsement, I'm going to have to try it!
We used fillet of Grouper for our steamed fish, you should try it next time. It was yummy!!
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