A tender, warming dish in the traditional Cantonese style of steaming– Australian barra shines on a stage of aromatic ginger and zingy lemon.
This is Mitch’s favourite way to eat barra and the first way he ever tried barra! This is a delicious way to prepare the fish, it’s clean and deep in flavour. This preparation is based on the traditional Cantonese way of serving steamed fish with a ginger and scallion condiment.
Prep time 20 minutes
Cook time 15 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 plate sized barramundi or
- 2 x 180g portions
- 100g ginger
- 1 bunch scallions
- 1 tbs sugar
- ½ tsp msg
- 250ml shao hsing cooking wine
- 100ml light soy
- 150ml vege or peanut oil
- steamed rice for serving
Method
For the ginger scallion condiment
- Finely slice the scallions. Place into a large metal bowl.
- Peel and microplane the ginger into the bowl with the scallions.
- Add the sugar & msg.
- Place the oil in a pot. Heat over high heat until the oil starts to smoke. Immediately turn off the heat. Do not leave the pot during this process!
- Carefully drizzle the oil over the scallions. The hot oil will sizzle and spit so be careful!
- The hot oil will wilt and cook the scallions.
- Mix the oil through, add the light soy and stir through.
- Put the condiment aside. Any excess will keep in the fridge for a few days.
For the fish:
- If using portions you can steam them in a bamboo steamer over a pot of water
- Place the fish on a plate that fits inside the steamer, flesh side down. Place the plate inside the steamer.
- Fill the base of the plate with shao hsing cooking wine. Place the lid on, put the tray over a pot of boiling water and steam for ‘x’ minutes.
- Take the steamer off the pot. Using a fish slice, remove the fish from the plate and transfer to the serving plate. You can remove the skin at this stage if you don’t like it!
- Pour over some of the steaming juices.
- If using a whole fish or if you do not have a steamer you can use an oven tray. Use a couple of chopsticks to keep the fish off the base of the tray. You can stuff the cavity of the fish with some ginger and lemon if you like!
- Preheat the oven at 200g.
- Splash the fish with the shao hsing. Add some water to the base of the tray to ensure there is enough liquid to create steam. Cover the tray with foil.
- Place the tray in the oven, cook the fish for 15 minutes.
- Remove the tray from the oven, remove the foil. Using 2 fish slices, lift the fish from the tray and transfer to your serving plate. Pour over some of the steaming juices.
- Garnish the fish with plenty of the ginger scallion condiment.
- Serve with rice!
Recipe credit to: ABFA