Hong Kong Style White Fish

We recently visited with friends for a real life grown up dinner party and they served an excellent Hong Kong style steamed fish. It is one of our favorites from the Atlanta Fish Market and we were kicking ourselves for not making it before. We decided that we must try this delightfully flaky and tasty treat ourselves.

And you know what? Not too bad on the waistline.

As is key to any good evening cooking event

Research:

Our friends pointed us to a few online recipes but we settled on the MyRecipes version because it was prepared by chef Chris McDonald from the Atlanta Fish Market. CLICK HERE FOR LINK

Ingredients:

1-2" piece of fresh ginger
3 green onions
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
2 cloves of crushed garlic (we used 2)
1 pound of fresh spinach
4-4 oz fillets of Sea Bass - We used one Sea Bass and one Halibut as a test to see which we liked better, I am told that Halibut is preferred.
1/4 cup sesame oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup dry sherry
1/3 cup water
2 teaspoons of sugar

1 Cup White rice

Plan:

Follow along as we cook...

Execution:

Peel ginger and cut into thin strips. Cut green onions into 2" strips and set them aside

Pour 1/4 cup of vegetable oil into skillet and cook crushed garlic 5 to 7 seconds then discard the garlic. This is to just infuse the oil with garlic flavor.

Then add spinach and cook until lightly wilted then spoon off and keep warm. We only used 5 oz of spinach as there was only two of us. This was a mistake, you can't have enough of this spinach.

Place the fish in a steamer basket over boiling water for 8 minutes or until flaky with a fork. A pro tip is to use parchment paper in the steamer to save some cleanup.

Place steamer over soon to be boiling water in the wok

Add Parchment paper to ease cleanup

Add the fish once the water is steaming. Cook 8 minutes or so.

Should be fork flaky

We didn't have a steamer so we bought this steamer for the project:

Helen Chen's Asian Kitchen Bamboo Steamer, 10-Inch

Finally, let's assemble. Place spinach on rice and fish on spinach and top with ginger and green onion. Don't be stingy with the ginger.

Plating contest - Submission 1

Plating contest - Submission 2

We skipped the part where you drizzle oil over the fish to save calories but I am sure it would have been a little richer.

Verdict:

We are planning on making this as regular dish. Nice healthy, quick, and delicious.

By the way, we both liked the Halibut best. Next time, we will also try cod to see what that may taste like. Standby for updates.

Oh, and thank you John & Elisha!









We would love it if you would drop us a note in the comment section and let us know how your cook went. We are always looking for suggestions and improvements! We have opened up the comments so that anyone can post now, so please do. I'll try not to delete anything unless it is spam or stabs me in the heart.



Please help support our site, buy something you like on Amazon. Simply click through the links below and though you can pick anything, I suggest the thermometer and knives below:


So apparently Thermoworks doesn't sell through Amazon anymore. You must buy direct. Still the thermometer to have. Go here and order direct. 

Aaron Franklin's Favorite trimming knife:

Dexter-Russell (S131F-6PCP) - 6" Boning Knife - Sani-Safe Series

Aaron Franklin's Favorite Brisket cutting/serving knife:

Sani-Safe S140-12SC-PCP 12" Scalloped Roast Slicer

Tomato and Watermelon Salad

It is once again tomato season in the South. We are inundated with tomatoes and anxious to find creative ways to use them. So last night, with our reverse seared steak, we made this delightful salad. I highly recommend it. It tastes like summer.

For those of you that may not know, we have been experimenting with growing tomatoes and documenting that effort on patioveggies.com. Check it out for additional information of the different varieties that we tried and what was more successful than others.

Research:

For this one we googled around but didn't really follow any recipe specifically. We used our standard vinaigrette and the traditional ingredients.

Ingredients:

Vinaigrette:
2 parts - Extra virgin olive oil
1 part - Red wine vinegar
teaspoon of Honey
teaspoon of Dijon mustard
a pinch of salt and pepper

Feta Cheese crumbles
Watermelon
Basil leaves
Home grown tomatoes
Cucumbers

Plan:

Here is a great life lesson. Do all of your knife work before drinks.

Follow along...

Execution:

Prep the vinaigrette. We just use a spare Ball Jar.

Add the ingredients and shake it up. Taste it and make sure you get it tart enough.

Then slice up the ingredients

We grew a wide variety of tomatoes so we like to use different colors to add interest

Then assemble

I like to splash a little extra red wine vinegar top and then add a sprinkle of kosher salt.

Verdict:

I can't tell you how fresh this tastes. It is an excellent side to any summer protein cooked on the Big Green Egg because it is such a nice contrast.

Make this one if you have a few spare tomatoes.







We would love it if you would drop us a note and let us know how your cook went in the comment section. We are always looking for suggestions and improvements! We have opened up the comments so that anyone can post now, so please do. I'll try not to delete anything unless it is spam or stabs me in the heart.



Please help support our site, buy something you like on Amazon. Simply click through the link below and we get a small percentage of what you pick. Though you can pick anything, I suggest the thermometer and knives below:


So apparently Thermoworks doesn't sell through Amazon anymore. You must buy direct. Still the thermometer to have. Go here and order direct. 

the

Dexter-Russell (S131F-6PCP) - 6" Boning Knife - Sani-Safe Series

and the

Sani-Safe S140-12SC-PCP 12" Scalloped Roast Slicer