RECIPE: WHOLE STEAMED FISH WITH CRISP FINISH

Chinese, fish and tofu are the flavours of the day. Unfortunately we had to fight the youngest child because of the fish (‘I Hate Fish’, was the retort…..but he can eat fish fingers; go figure!). So guess who went hungry then?! Anyway, the dog thought all his Christmases had come true today….he wasn’t complaining about the fish!

The rest of the family thought it was really yummy and it is easy to prepare too. Just make sure that the fish is fresh.

Ingredients
1 whole snapper or bream (about 1 kg) – scaled and cleaned. I used snapper today
½ tsp or more sea salt
½ tsp or more white pepper
3 cm ginger – finely sliced
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
3 spring onions
1 large stick celery
½ a small capsicum
2 large chillies (optional)
1/3 cup peanut oil

Method
Wash the fish and its cavity and pat dry with paper towels. Sprinkle the fish (inside and out) with the salt and pepper and place the ginger in the cavity.

Combine the soy sauce and the sesame oil and lightly brush over the fish. Leave for at least 15 mins.

Cut the spring onions, celery, capsicum and chillies into 4 cm lengths and julienne thinly (like matchsticks).

Place a pair of chopsticks to form a cross at the base of a large wok (to act as a rack) and bring to boil about 7 cm of water in it.

Lightly score the fattest part of the fish about three times, transfer to a heat proof plate and place on top of the chop sticks. Steam for about 15 to 20 mins.

Five minutes before the end of the steaming time, warm a heatproof serving platter in the oven.

Turn off the heat under the makeshift steamer /wok and place all the julienne vegetables on it and leave covered in the wok for three mins. At the end of this time, transfer the fish and vegetables onto the warmed serving platter.

Quickly heat the oil in a small saucepan until smoking; then pour over the fish and vegetables. Be careful as it will splatter. Serve with rice and other dishes such as QUICK AND EASY STIR FRIED PAK CHOY and SILKEN TOFU WITH SOY, CHILLI AND SPRING ONIONS.