Growing up, our dinners consisted of one meat dish and a veg dish served with rice and soup. The mains are put in the middle of the table and you help yourself as you go. I think it’s a nice thing to do every once in a while to have a shared dinner like this in a flatting situation, as opposed to having everything put on individual plates – there’s perhaps a greater sense of sharing and connection.
This one was inspired by what my mum would cook when I was younger, combined with things we’ve had at restaurants here and in Malaysia. I’m super happy with how it’s turned out. It’s essentially fish half-steamed, half-boiled in a small amount of liquid for a short time. I like how slight variations in the broth can change the flavour profile significantly, such as the addition of salted vegetables, or adding a teaspoon of vinegar.
I had a bit of trouble with this one as I was using a stove that couldn’t get to as hot a temperature as I would have liked. It’s also worth trying to pick fish fillets that are all about the same size so the cooking is even. On that note, I used monkfish today, and perch has worked well before, but I imagine any fish that isn’t very soft (e.g. red cod) would go pretty well.
I used prawns today but that’s only because I wasn’t convinced I had enough fish to feed three. They were surprisingly good, but not necessary.
Don’t think I have anything else at this stage, so here we go.
Ginger and spring onion fish
Serves: 3
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
400-500g of your choice of fish (3 medium fillets of monkfish)
Bunch of spring onions (at least 3 and up to 5 stalk things)
Chunk of ginger
1 chilli
Quarter of a brown onion
1 tomato
Handful of spinach
Salt
Pepper
1-2 tsp sesame oil (to serve)
For the broth:
50mL of Shaoxing wine (available at any Chinese supermarket and~$2 per bottle)
50mL water
1 tsp light soy sauce
1-2 tsp fish sauce
Instructions:
- Thinly slice the spring onion, brown onion and chilli. Reserve the tops of the spring onion for the garnish. Chop the tomato into chunks. Julienne the ginger, which can be done easily by slicing it thinly then stacking the slices and slicing thinly again. Here’s a video showing that by Nadia Lim:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lD6QDMEP6E - Mix the 50mL Shaoxing wine, 50mL water (use stock if you have it), one teaspoon of light soy sauce and one to two teaspoons of fish sauce in a cup. Variation: add one teaspoon of white vinegar.
- Over high heat, heat a large flat pan that you have a lid for. When the pan is hot, put cold oil in, give it a good swish around, then put the aromatics in (ginger, spring onion, brown onion, chilli). When they start to brown, add the tomato and spinach. Fry for maybe 30 seconds longer then add the liquid mixture from the cup. Your pan should be hot enough that the liquid boils immediately and the alcohol cooks off. The liquid should cover the base of the pan but not come up more than one or two centimetres.
- Lightly season the fish with salt and pepper. Place into the boiling liquid. Cover and let cook until you see the sides of the fish start to turn white (1-2 minutes). Then flip the fish, cover and continue to cook for another three to five minutes to finish the cooking process. Ultimately you can check that the fish is done by cutting through the thickest part – it should not be difficult to cut through, so if it is continue to cook with the lid on.
- Remove from the heat, garnish generously with the tops of the spring onion you reserved earlier. Drizzle with one or two teaspoons of sesame oil to finish. Cooking the sesame oil removes some of the flavour; putting it on after the cooking process is complete allows the fragrance to stand out a bit more.
- Serve with rice and vegetables.
Concluding remarks: If it’s any measure of quality, my white friend who doesn’t really eat fish rates this, so give it a go even if you’re not big on fish!