Amoeba,

Ginger and garlic? How exactly do you steam that fish? That’s one of my favorite dishes at Chinese places.

Thanks Yim.

El D, I typically like steaming 1 pound fishes as my steamer is only so large and its easier to get complete doneness without overcoooking 1 pound fishes. With 1 pound fishes, I put the fish in after its boiling and steam for 8 minutes. For closer to 2 pound fishes like the one I had today, I have to cut slits and steam for 11 to 12 minutes.

There is no seasoning before steaming aside from scallions and ginger in the belly. Ginger slices also are placed under fish to have fish skin not stick to plate.

Its key to have the fish be very thoroughly cleaned and dried and havr gills removed. Water should run very clear while rinsing the inside.

Pat the insides very dry.

While fish is steaming, I mix mostly soy with a touch of sake and a touch of mirin. Add more mirin if you like more sweetness. The sauce will taste overly salty at this point. Thats ok.

I also julienne more fresh ginger and scallions at this point and soak in water.

When fish is steamed, remove from steamer. You will have some fish stock at the bottom of plate. There will be particles if fish was not cleaned well and stock will not be usable. I mix some of this stock with the soy mixture from earlier, clean the plate, then pour the stock soy mixture back around under the fish. I top eith ginger scallion slivers.

Heat some oil. I use 2 parts neutral oil to 1 part sesame. When it is just smoking. Pour in a thin stream over the fish/ginger/scallions cooking the ginger scallions.

The oil will run down in to the sauce, using a chopstick, swirl around a bit to get smaller oil rivlets.

Occasionally, i do the same recipe but instead of soy and mirin, I mix a lime and fish sauce dressing and in addition to ginger scallions, i add thai chilis basil and mint. Then i just use a neutral oil. You can also top with some fried shallots.

Amoeba,

Thank you so much! Do you have any recs on types of fish that work better/worse for that preparation?

This is a great recipe and one that my mom makes very frequently for me. It's simple yet delicious (and has few ingredients).

In traditional Cantonese cuisine, grouper/garoupa is king.

Recently, i have taken a strong liking to bronzino/branzino. Its just the right size and texture. Others in the true sea bass family like striped bass or white bass would also work but for me branzino is the favorite.

Snapper/seabream family also very good. Domestic red snapper is a good value alternative to madai or kinmedai when steamed.

Flatfish family such as sole and flounder are also good candidates though the flesh will be softer and less lively.

As grizy posted earlier, chilean sea bass cut in to pieces also works well steamed and because of high fat content, is very forgiving of steaming for too long.

I would suggest branzino/bronzino as a first try.

A less well known version of steamed fish is the Shanghai/Hangzhou style where fish is steamed with jinhua ham, bamboo shoots, and ****aki mushrooms. People say that you can substitute Jinhua ham eith virginia ham but thats not really true, the closest to Jinhua ham really is Jamon Iberico.

If I ever get some Barramundi and its back in bamboo season, I will make the following

I used to call myself a foodie. Not anymore after reading amoeba’s posts.

amoeba that fish looks incredible. And this is coming from someone who isn’t a particularly huge seafood fan.

If anyone is in the market for a smoker, QVC is running a phenomenal deal for a Traeger today. I pulled the trigger:

http://www.qvc.com/Traeger-Heartland...SV_OTO_INSTOCK

amoeba, looking very fresh. Truly picture perfect. Roasted bronzino or fried snapper next please.

Bigd, your toy collection is A+. Have you started looking for a gaucho grill yet ?

amoeba, do you have a go-to Kung Pao chicken recipe? I love Kenji’s “Real Deal” recipe, but since it’s my favorite Chinese dish I’m always on the lookout for new variations.

Just stopped in to thank Amoeba for posting his recipe for steaming fish, I’ll probably do this in the next week with a red snapper which I like and available at a good price in Houston.

Also look forward to seeing what BigDaddy does with his Traeger.

Same here. I've never steamed one just for myself or a girlfriend, it's always with family or at banquets so it's like comfort food for me.

What I do is virtually identical to Kenji's recipe. I might use a red skinned peanut occasionally or use a different chili broadbean paste or slightly adjust the amount of soy vs vinegar vs broadbean paste. All of these things are secondary though.

The key part of Kenji's recipe is him telling you to cook chicken in batches. The most important things are how hot the pan/wok is when the chicken goes in. How much doneness there is when chicken comes out. How long are you thickening the sauce/coating the chicken right before plating.

A lot of it is also dependent on how saucy you like it and how strongly flavored you want it.

Actually, if you like kung pao chicken a lot, I would encourage you to try its sister dish, yuxiang rousi. I use the bottled american pickles sport peppers in place of chinese pickled peppers.


https://redhousespice.com/sichuan-sh...-garlic-sauce/

Yu xiang rou si is one of the dish used to test Sichuan culinary students before graduation.

Here's a short video of Bourdain and Ripert cooking it in Sichuan

Oh I definitely need to try this.

I deviate from Kenji’s recipe slightly. I skip the leakes outright. I add like a teaspoon of chicken bullion to the marinade, and a teaspoon of white pepper to the green scallions before adding them. I also add a bit of sesame oil to the sauce. I also use brown sugar which is now my go-to in Asian cooking. You’re absolutely right: cooking the chicken in small batches is key.

Thread pros:

I could use a recommendation for a boning knife.

Made a beef stew yesterday, started by breaking down and cubing a chuck roast. Wasn't happy with how it went trying to clean up the silverskin with my chefs knife, feels like I had a lot more waste than necessary. Watched a couple videos tonight and both used a boning knife to deal with the connective tissue and silverskin. Not too likely to use it for a whole lot else, I'm not a big fish eater.

Banana blondies containing bacon chocolate chips, topped with strawberry and peanut butter

Damn that looks great.

Zik,

How big a batch of hash did you make!?!!?

Btc,

That is one over the top blondie!

It's probably about 10 pounds. I'll freeze a bunch and give some away.

Zik,

I could def eat some corned beef hash every day til 10 pounds was gone!

PS..keep the metal grinding blade and screw in the freezer until you're ready too start. It helps keep everything cold while you're grinding the meat as the friction can cause the metal to heat up if you're making a big batch

Yeah I kept everything cold and they came out pretty good. I may have overworked the meat or not added enough fat because they were pretty dry. Overall tasty and not as difficult as I expected.