View source for Ginger and Scallion Steamed Fish

This recipe is something I bust out around Chinese holidays, and it also doubles as Blackberry's birthday dinner (mainly because it's one of the few non-spicy people-food dishes she likes to eat, which means I don't have to deal with kitty nuclear-bung the day after... like that one time she ate that omelette covered in Schiracha when I wasn't looking). In other words, this is one way to feed your guests gourmet cat food (the other way being "buy a bunch of cans of Fancy Feast Elegant Medleys in different flavors and spread them on crackers to make classy hors d'oeuvres." Nobody seems to want to eat pate at my house anymore).

Ingredients:

1 filet of whitefish (red snapper, sea bass, tilapia, cod etc.) or 1 whole fish (if you're feeding lots of people)

3 to 5 sprigs of scallion (depending on how much you like scallions)

3 tbsp ginger (sliced up into long thin strips)

4 tbsp cooking oil

4 tbsp soy sauce

Tools:

1 steamer

1 pyrex/glass/heat-safe rimmed plate or pie dish (big enough to fit the fish, and small enough to fit inside the steamer)

1 frying pan/wok/pot (some stove-top safe vessel to heat oil)


Start the water in the steamer. Slice/shred up the scallions into long extra-thin strips (about 2 inches long). Once the water in the steamer's boiling, place the fish in the plate/pie dish and place that into the steamer (do a fit check beforehand! Doesn't fit? Ohhh, now you've done it, buddy. Better make sure you can get that plate out once it's steaming hot and filled with fish-juice, otherwise you're in for one hell of a mess). However you manage to cram that dish into the steamer, make sure you can close the lid. Steam the fish for 7 minutes, then remove the plate promptly (and carefully, lest ye be covered in hot moist fish). Liberally distribute the ginger and scallions all over the steamed fish and pour on the soy sauce. Finally, heat up the oil until it is nearly smoking, and pour it all over the entire dish (this is the ancient Chinese secret step... a little bit of deep-frying makes *everything* taste better). Serve the fish steaming hot right away.