Bought me a fish.
I was thinking I'd steam it Chinese style, but then thought "I can eat that any time. Do something different."
In the end I did it the same and different. I prepared it for steaming as if it was going to be a Chinese dish. You have to creep up on these critters. Gutted and de-scaled it then washed it in Shaoxing wine and stuffed it with garlic and ginger. Decorated the top with ginger "scales", chilli and carrot. Just to confuse it, I used two scallions to act as an honour guard on either side. Then I steamed the baby for 12 minutes.
before
After 12 minutes steaming in the wok, I removed it,
after
let it cool a bit then removed the top fillet. That confused it. It's usually served whole, Chinese style.
Plated the one fillet with orzo and asparagus. In case it felt like a fish out of water, I added the two now steamed scallions to give it a feeling of security in this bizarre foreign environment.
Then I ate it.
Then went back for the lower fillet., more orzo and more asparagus.
The fish was nicely spicy from the ginger and chilli and I think it went well with orzo. I'm likely to revisit this.
