Sat. we woke up, cleaned the house, went to dinner at Grand Sichuan in Jersey City (review coming up), and finally watched Sex and the City. I came home with a pounding headache and went straight to sleep.
Sun. we went to the gym, ran for a bit, did a little weight training, played a little ball, then got into our bathing suit and hit the pool. it was some crazy weather that day though. Raining cats and dogs one min, then the next got all clear and sunny. it looks gloomy in the pic, but there were actually sun out. H calls the sudden burst of rain "Sunburst". I never said anything to him, but I've always wonder if he's just making shit up. Sunburst, really? like the candy?
My friend, if you live alone, have a busy life and want to eat healthy, but don't want to subsitute your dinner for cereal. Here is something you can whip up in no time. All you need is a fresh fish, some ginger, scallion, cilantro and pepper, you are all good to go.
I'm not sure about the Chinese supermarket around where you live, but the one I have here offers fresh fish. They MUST be fresh, in a tank, swimming. I usually get the TILAPIA, but you can try other kinds too, however, I think this is one of the most common fish in Asian markets.
At the market, tell them to gut, scale, head on, tail on. I personally think head and tail are the best parts to eat in a fish, so if you afraid of the eyes, you can tell them to chop the head off.
Make sure Nemo's eyes are CLEAR, that is the #1 sign to look for in a fresh fish. If the eyes are cloudy and muddy, toss it, it's not worth cooking.
Once you get Nemo home, wash in cold water to remove the residual blood and gut pieces. Lay flat on a cutting board, and cut 3 deep cuts on each side of the fish. This will allow the flavor to go in easier.
Cover Nemo in a plastic wrap. No need to poke holes. Place the dish in a microwave. now, here is the tricky part. My Nemo was 1.13lbs. I put it on 8mins, and it was just right. Usually, i'd say, the range for cooking is 7-9min. but it depends on your microwave. I don't have to input LEVEL for my microwave, so i'm going to assume it's on HIGH. But this is the part, where you kind of have to play around a little bit.
If your fish is under cook, it'll stick to the bone. If it's over cooked, it'll be too chewy.
Ding! 8 mins of perfection. Leave it outside for a bit, be careful when you remove the plastic wrap, EXTREME HOT ASS STEAM WILL BURN YOUR HANDS!
Next up on the ingredient list: Ginger, Scallion, Cilantro, red/green long pepper (not bell pepper, that's some white people stuff, no asian food requires a bell pepper). The Asian market didn't have red long peppers, so I got green, but red would be better, b/c of the color contrast, makes Nemo look more yummy.
Cut them in a thin shred. hhmm.. i'm assuming everybody knows how to cut pepper, ginger and scallion. Cilantro you can just wash and cut in half. If you have trouble with the cutting technique, just ask.
Layer them on top of the steamed fish.
Heat some oil on HIGH HEAT. You want that oil to be HOT HOT HOT. Once you see some smoke coming out, that means it's ready. It's very very very HOT! but if you see a whole lot of smoke coming out, you should toss the oil away, it's starting to burn and it's not good for your health.
I love this step. Pour the HOT OIL on top of the steamed fish layered with your scallion, ginger and all that goodies. There are no pictures that can take place of the sizzling sound I love. So I made a little clip. Mind you the oil isn't even as hot as I want, b/c I'm so damn excited and didn't want to wait for it to heat up more. But you get the idea.
Next, pour some soy sauce over Nemo, don't it look so damn sexy! Use the lighter kind of soy sauce. Hmm... how do you say that in English? The Sheng Chou and Lao Chou? there are 2 kinds of soy sauce, one darker and thicker, and one lighter and more fluid. Use the lighter one. Or you can just buy the ones made just for steamed fish, like the one I have.
Our dinner last night consisted of: 8-Minute steamed fish, garlic bok choy, and Ox Tail potato soup (Mr.H's creation, i don't mess with Ox Tail until the winter, so when it comes to meat, it's all him).
The hardest part about this dish is to know the time/temp for your microwave. For the past 4 yrs I've made this dish, I probably only f'ed up once, when it's under cooked. You can try to stick it back to the microwave and get another min or two. Best way to check: see if the fish is sticking to the bone. it should slide off of the bone very easily.
I put more than usual amount of scallion and cilantro in this dish, b/c another best part of the dish is to let that goodness soak in that bath of oil and soy sauce, once you are done eatting the fish, pour that stuff over your rice. O M G!!! soy sauce scallion and cilantro over rice. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? trust me, the best shit ever.
Good luck with this dish, and let me know how it turned out! It's a great dish just to have w/o the rice if you are watching your weight. I lost some weight eatting this every night for a summer, my skin cleared up too. Watch out for the bone, Tilapia usualy have only big bones, so y'all should be ok. C'mon, y'all are asian, you know how to eat a fish with bone in it right? =P
3 comments:
Hehe I had such fun reading about how Nemo got cooked :) Looks yummy, and you were so cute when describing the sizzling part! Oh oh oh, and I believe its regular soy sauce (the light, liquidy one) and dark soy sauce (the thick, darker one) ;)
Omgaw. I never thought one could steam Tilapia in a microwave! I love fish. MMMM. I've prepared the same dish before, but in a wok to steam.
My boyfriend's parents do the same thing. Quick, easy, and most of all, not much work involved, lol.
But Nemo? Omg. I think a little part of me just died. lol.
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