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.