Steamed Sea Bass with Scallions and Ginger

This is a very simple, but very delicious dish I like to serve for company.  It's also one of Mom's favorites, so when she invited her friends Debbie and Mark for dinner, this is what she wanted (along with the citrus roasted asparagus, Parker House rolls, and lime pie...see index to find them).

My friend, Yoda, has been overseeing the kitchen for a few weeks.  I felt I needed to channel my inner Jedi warrior (trying not to mix my sci-fi movies here...).

Anyway, a word on "wok steaming," which is the method used to cook the fish.  I don't want you to be intimidated, or to think you have to go out and purchase bamboo steaming baskets (although they're

nice).  Joyce Chen makes them and they sell for about $15.  If you have these, all you have to do is pour water to a depth of 2-3", then you set the steamer in the wok, making sure that it sits above the water.  To ensure that the steam circulates freely, the plate you put the fish on should be about 2 inches smaller than the diameter of the wok.  

I have used these and the challenge is getting the plate out of the steamer basket without burning your fingers.  You can stack one basket on top of the other, with one plate of fish in each.  However you want to put a smaller piece of fish, or one that is thinner in the top basket, to ensure even cooking.  And you have to be really careful because the very, very hot sauce likes to spill...you know it just occurred to me that you can solve that problem by using a fairly flat bowl, like the one you see below with the sauce in it.  The steam permeates the inside of the basket, so it shouldn't interfere with cooking.

An alternative is using a round cake rack in a wok or another pan with a tight fitting lid.  It needs to sit far enough below the rim of the pan for the plate and fish, and then the lid.  Also some cookware comes  with a steamer insert, which sits below the rim of the pot.  Anything you can rig up to with a plate to sit on a platform, and that allows the steam to surround the fish will do the trick.

I finally bought a Wolfgang Puck wok with a steamer, partly because it is gigantic and sometimes I want to make large quantities of stir-fry, but it came with this great steamer insert that is big enough for a dinner plate.  That's what you'll see in the photo below, and you can see that I got all five pieces of fish on it.

STEAMED SEA BASS WITH SCALLIONS AND GINGER

4 sea bass, 6 oz each
3 scallions, halved crosswise, plus 1 scallion, finely julienned
1 Tablespoon peeled and finely julienned fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons canola or peanut oil
1 Tablespoon light soy sauce
2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil
1 1/2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper

 Here are my favorite brands that I buy at the local Asian grocery:

Pearl River Bridge superior light soy sauce

Pearl River Bridge superior dark soy sauce

 Lee Kum Kee Panda Brand oyster sauce

 Kadoya pure sesame oil

 Measure the fish fillets at their thickest point.  (You will want to cook them 10 minutes for every inch of thickness.  I find that it usually takes about 15 minutes.  Having said that, it is very difficult to get uniform sizes, so I also use an instant-read thermometer, looking for 150 degrees or more.)

Make a bed of the halved scallions on a plate large enough to hold the fish and suitable for steaming.

Place the fillets in a single layer on the bed of scallions.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to steam.

Place a bamboo steamer on the bottom of a wok or large, deep frying pan and pour in water to a depth of 2 inches.  The water should not touch the steamer.  Bring the water to boil over high heat.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, stir together the ginger (julienned like this),

garlic, 1 Tablespoon of the canola or peanut oil (I like the flavor of peanut oil better), light soy sauce, sesame oil, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, cornstarch and white pepper.

When you are ready to begin cooking, spoon the mixture evenly over the fish fillets.  Place the plate on the steamer above the boiling water,

and steam the fish over high heat for 10 minutes per inch.  When they are cooked through the fish will flake easily with a fork.  Turn off the heat under the wok to reduce the chance of burning yourself with the steam.

Here it gets tricky.  Usually I serve this with rice, but this time I didn't.  If you are serving it with rice (which is delicious because it soaks up the sauce), have the plates with the rice on it read to receive the fish.  Then transfer the fish to each plate, making sure not to capture any of the scallions, as they are there for flavor only and should be discarded.

Spoon any sauce remaining on the plate over the fish.

In a small pan over high heat, heat the remaining 1 Tablespoon canola (or peanut) oil until it is almost smoking.  Place the julienned scallions

on top of the fish.  Carefully drizzle the hot oil over the scallions (they will make a delightful sizzling noise).

This recipe would also work well with halibut.

Serves 4.