Steamed Tilapia

Hello hello! Here's another fish recipe (which I do so rare! yet love fish so much) that is simple with minimal ingredients. We just had dinner not too long ago and have been stuffed ever since. The mothers keep coming around and bringing food so we've been trying to cram everything down before anything goes to waste :(. But! That does not stop me from cooking. I bought this fish yesterday afternoon but got caught up with things and couldn't have cooked it till today. Usually, like all seafood, fresh is best. No argument. So, if you go buy a fresh fishy it's always best to cook it within that day. Holding it off a day isn't a crime, but not exactly the best idea. While also, never, EVER freeze fresh fish. That's a felony right there. Lucky for me, I have fairly easy access to a Chinese fish market that keeps tanks of live tilapia in the store to let you pick out and they do a rough prep of it for you. Just a good note: you should always ask them to be careful about gutting the fish for you. If they do it carelessly, they will most likely cut open the swim bladder (I'm not 100% sure it's the swim bladder since I have difficulty of the figuring out the English equivalent for the term in Chinese) and ruin the entire fish. Regardless of the amount of seasoning and washing you do, the fish is absolutely ruined once the swim bladder is cut open.  So, be nice to your fish butcher because he's the first person to lay hands on your fish. This method of cooking fish is very common in parents' village and can be applied to different varieties of fish. For this recipe in particular, I had chosen tilapia because it is my favorite fish. The texture and taste is amazing while also the cost is fantastic, always! I got this fish for about $4.00 and it feeds a large group fairly well. So, grab your fish, your ingredients, and your wok--it's time for cooking!

Ingredients:
1.) 1 whole fish. Unless you're eating fish that is monstrous in size, then eating partially is acceptable.
2.) Salt
3.) Ginger (use as much as you want)
4.) Scallions (use as much as you want)
5.) Cilantro (use as much as you want
6.) ~5 tbsps of soy sauce
7.) 5 tbsps of hot oil

Directions:
1.) Take the fish and thoroughly rinse through. As mentioned before, the fish itself is usually roughly prepped by the butcher; meaning scales are roughly scraped off and the guts are just yanked out without much thought. So, make sure that all the scales stuck on the fish are removed and the insides are washed with running water.

Close up of Mr. fishy for tonight's dinner.

2.) Place fish on plate--best to use a plate with some basin like a baking pan of that sort. Coat with salt on both sides and inside.

Salt the fish on both sides, and inside. 

3.) Place fish in a steamer and steam for about 20 minutes. Since I have a small steamer and inadequate utensils to cook the fish in, I just instead placed a curved plate with neck in a wok and filled the bottom with water, placing the fish in the plate.

Since I can't fit the fish in my mini-steamer, I just placed in a curved bowl in a wok with water.

4.) Peel the ginger and julienne. Since many people do not like ginger, it's best to cut it as small as possible. Even though it seems like a good idea for this recipe to use a grater, grating the ginger is a bad idea since the ginger root itself is extremely fibrous. This just makes you remove the flesh from the fiber and leave you with a watery, gloppy, ginger mess. Julienne the ginger. It doesn't take that much effort.

Julienne the ginger. It's already topped on the fish in this picture.

5.) Cut the scallion in a julienne fashion but in a diagonal direction. This elongates the scallion and makes it easier to pick up with eating utensils.

Repeat the same with the scallions.

6.) Wash your cilantro, fold and roll your cilantro similar to that of an egg roll or cigar to make a nice compact bundle. Give the bundle a rough chop.
7.) Check on fish to see if it is ready. Usually, the skin will break and peel back due to heat, but that's normal. Remove the fish from the wok (or steamer) and drain water collected on the bottom of the plate. For me, I transferred my fish to a bigger plate after it had finished cooking, but still something with a basin.
8.) While hot, top the fish with the ginger, scallion, and cilantro. Coat heavily with soy sauce.

Freshly steamed fish--before toppings. 

Add toppings, and heavily coat with soy sauce.

Heat up oil in wok. Canola or veggie works best.

Place in sink basin before adding hot oil to reduce splatter.

Finished product. I ultimately ripped the tail off and pushed it to the side since it was a bothersome to have it hanging off the plate. 

9.) Heat some oil in a wok for the fish. Once the oil is heated, remove from heat and ladle over the fish with toppings. Tip: Best to place the fish in the basin of your sink before adding the hot oil. This is because when hot oil comes in contact with liquids, i.e. the toppings and the soy sauce, splatter will happen. If the fish is in the basin of the sink, the splatter is significantly less dangerous. Serve! Best with white rice. Enjoy!


Afterthoughts: I have not had this dish in such a long time! It was so delightful with the soft and sweet flesh of the fish. I could have used a little more salt but overall, the dish came out great. I wish I had better dishes, like a quiche dish, or something wider with a better basin since the soy sauce and oil does collect and add up under the fish for dipping, but was slightly inaccessible due to the plate size I had used. Overall, very delicious.

Costs:
1.) 1 whole fresh tilapia = $4.00
2.) scallion, ginger, (I didn't use cilantro in this instance) = $1.00
Total Costs: $5.00 for a serving of ~5 or so. 

Chicken with Shiitake Mushroom.

Hellooooooo! The blog is back on! Sorry I haven't posted any Chinese New Years recipe but I had to miss out too. I unfortunately came down with the flu for the past two weeks and had been living in hell. I was so looking forward to this holiday since last year's New Year was dismissed due to the insane Chicago blizzard. I guess I'll just have to wait till next year's New Year. But, we can't sit and mope all day so the best we can do is to salvage what's left of this blog for now. I've been cooking here and there but haven't had the time to post up a new recipe since New Years. Fortunately for you (and me, since I get to eat it), I had sometime today and thought it would cheer me up from a crappy month. Yes, it has cheered me up.

This dish is one of those home cooked dishes that you can't live without. Trust me, I've tried and have failed. With just a few ingredients and some white rice, dinner is served! I personally love mushrooms and its many forms, but shiitake (or as I call them 'black') mushrooms are my favorite. They range from extremely price to dirty cheap, but you just need to learn how to pick. For Chinese markets, they're usually dried and in a sealed package with silica gel for better convenience. I've seen them fresh before, but you have to be a baller to purchase something of that sort. And this being an *economical* college student food blog, we always try to make due with what we have. These black mushrooms are wonderfully fragrant raw and especially cooked. I honestly cannot think of a better dish to cook black mushroom with other this. Oh yes, and lo mai gai (a Chinese breakfast tamale) which I might post a recipe eventually when I get the time. Please keep in mind that this dish is usually steamed, but since I don't have the utensils to steam it, I'm using an alternative cooking method of a basic hot wok. So, get ready to get your hands dirty cause this down home dish is going to make you drool.

Ingredients:
1.) 3-4 large handfuls of dried shiitake mushrooms. For this dish, you can add as much or as little mushrooms as you want, but I'm a mushroom lover so I'm going nuts over this. :D
2.) 1 hindquarter of a chicken (I also used some left over steamed chicken I had from the day before and threw it in all together so in reality, I used about 6-7 cups of chicken in total--ideally dark meat works best in this recipe)

3.) 5-6 tbsps of soy sauce (dark version can work very well with this dish)
4.) 1/2 - 1 tbsp of salt
5.) 1 tbsp of sugar
6.) 2-3 dried goji berries (optional--but this gives it a very nice sweet flavor. I never tried until Mama Zhu gave me some :D)

Directions:
1.) Place dried mushrooms in a bowl and soak with hot faucet water (the hottest water possible from your faucet; not boiling water). Soak the mushrooms until soft. You can check by pinching the centre. You want the centre to be spongy. If the centre is not spongy, still semi-hard, then change the water, and keep soaking. This should take about 10 minutes or so.

Use as much mush as you please. Soak in hot water until soft.

2.) Cut up chicken in to medium sized chunks. Keep in mind, if you're using dark meat, there is going to be bone, so you're going to need to put in a little more effort in hacking the chicken. Best to use butcher knife :D Remove any loose shards of bone.

Cut chicken (through the bone) into chunks. 

I had some left over steamed chicken that I used for this recipe.

3.) Drain the mushrooms and cut into smaller pieces. You can leave them whole, but they can be very large and/or very small and not as comfortable for the eater to masticate.

Cut mushrooms into thirds or leave them whole. Your choice. 

Best to continue soaking them after they're cut up to the point of cooking.

4.) In a hot wok, heat up a few a tbsp or two of oil. Add chicken and cook into a semi state. Add mushrooms.(If you're using already cooked chicken like I did, add it after the mushrooms.) Add goji berries if using goji berries for this recipe.

Add chicken and sear first. Cook to semi state.

Add mushrooms and in this case, cooked chicken. I had used to the coagulated  broth left from the chicken also.

5.) Add soy sauce, salt, and sugar. Add enough water to submerge about 93% of the contents in the wok. You can use chicken stock, but water works just fine in this recipe. Put a lid on the wok and bring to boil.

Add water to submerge most of the ingredients. Add soy sauce, salt, and sugar.

Cover with lid and bring to boil.

6.) Once boiling, stir contents and give a taste test. Adjust whatever is needed. Continue boiling for another three minutes.
7.) Remove from heat and serve. 

Remove from heat and serve. Best to keep the broth within the dish to keep the chicken moist

Close up of final product.

Afterthoughts: I have not had this dish in such a long time. Steaming is a better method in cooking this dish since it basically cooks the chicken in the juices while it brings out the fragrance quicker and stronger within the mushrooms without drying out the chicken. This method of cooking it in a wok works almost the same but just takes a little more effort. If anyone is interested in how the steamed version works, just leave me a request through comments. This is a very simple and filling dish. The hardest part would be cutting up the chicken with the bones in, but a little effort goes a long way since the bones within the chicken (the bone marrow) creates a nice strong chicken broth within itself. You can try this recipe with goji berries too which add a special kind of slightly heavier) sweetness  to the dish, but I generally prefer it without since this is more of a savory with a light sweetness. I hope you can enjoy this dish as much as I did.

Costs:
1.) Dried mushrooms = $5.00 for a medium sized packet; ~1/3 was used for this dish, so ~$1.70 was used
2.) Amount of chicken used = ~$4.00 worth; I used a lot of chicken in this recipe
3.) Soy sauce, sugar, salt, etc = ~$0.15
Total Costs: $5.85 for 8-9 servings