I was craving for a beautiful piece of steamed fish and when I saw that halibut was on sale for $3.69/100g [the best price I’ve seen all year] I couldn’t resist!
Even though I’ve been eating food for my whole life, seafood has never really been a big part of what I consumed. It’s odd because I live on the West coast of British Columbia, which has some of the best seafood in the country. In the last few years I have been embracing our ocean delights, from sweet scallops from Qualicum or briny spot prawns, Albacore tuna and octopus to name a few.
I’ve had steamed fish only twice in my life and both were rather recently. I had an amazing meal in Bangkok, Thailand at Nahm restaurant
(check it out –> http://www.comohotels.com/metropolitanbangkok/dining/nahm/concept ) and one of the courses was a stunning steamed fish dish in an aromatic broth, perfectly cooked. The other time I had steamed fish was with black bean sauce and hot oil and ginger.
This recipe is my adaptation of the second steamed fish but no black bean sauce.
I poached the halibut on a plate in my bamboo steamer that I placed over a pot of boiling water. The fish is done when it starts to flake and if you put a knife down the centre of the fish it cuts to the bottom of the plate. This was a big piece of fish so it was between 8-10 minutes of steaming.
Chinese steamed Halibut
- the perfect piece of fish (whatever you like, fillet, tail piece, steak, etc.)
-ginger, finely chopped into thin julienne strips
-garlic into thin pieces
-scallions, cut into long length-wise strips
sauce
-2 tbsp soy sauce
-few dashes of toasted sesame oil
-1 tbsp of grapeseed oil
-1 tbsp water with a bit of water, or rice wine, or mirin
**NOTE: taste your sauce and see how salty/sweet it is and if you want it a bit weaker you can add a bit of water.
1) Steam the fish on a plate in the steamer for 8-10 minutes. I put some of the ginger, scallions and garlic on top of the fish and reserved the others to cook in the sauce.
2) Heat a saucepan and warm your sauce with the remaining ginger, scallions and garlic.
3) Pour over the steamed fish and eat with rice. I garnished it with some doubanjiang (fermented bean paste with chilies, my favourite!)
Simple and tasty! Please enjoy 🙂
TSP
The Simmering Pot 