All Things in Moderation

I’m a fan of a recipe a friend of mine for sake steamed sea bass. It’s pretty simple. Reduce a cup of clam juice and white wine, toss in some ginger, put some white fish (halibut is wonderful) on a rack on top of it, top with sesame oil, soy sauce, sesame seeds and scallions. Steam for five minutes and serve. It’s particularly good served over sushi rice as the chew of the rice and the flavor of the sauce come together.

I had some mahi mahi in the freezer the other day and took it down with the idea of steaming it in a similar manner. I wanted to make it a complete meal, including the veggies, rather than making a side dish. I recently had the Hong Kong Style Sea Bass at the Carlyle, a favorite restaurant of ours in Shirlington. The fish that night was overcooked (don’t order a dish needing careful timing at 9 p.m. on a Friday), but the idea is great.

I hunted around a little on the web for ideas, using these two dishes as my guideposts. We had some all purposes veggies around that would work well: red onion, red bell pepper, carrots, ginger, scallions. The recipe is quite flexible in this regard as you can vary the veg to whatever you like. My one significant modification was that I wanted to make a proper pan sauce. Hey, it’s an excuse to use some butter. So, here’s what I fashioned.

Asian Steamed Mahi Mahi

 Ingredients:

½ cup white wine

½ cup chicken stock or clam juice

2 cups of thinly sliced root vegetables. I think you could also simply use a bag of whatever you like from the freezer section. Here’s my mixture:

½ lg. red onion, thinly sliced (use white or red if you prefer)

2 medium or 3 small carrots, peeled and thinly sliced (long slices, not quarters)

1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon of ginger, you guessed it, thinly sliced

Several cloves of garlic, finely chopped (just to mix it up a little)

One bunch of scallions, sliced lengthwise

Greens – I’ve made this recipe with baby bock choi and it worked well. The white portions went in with the root vegetables and the green portions on top. Spinach and  cilantro work well in this dish as well.

1 pound mahi mahi or other firm white fish

Sea salt (or whatever is your favorite)

1 – 2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 – 2 tablespoons sesame oil

Toasted sesame seeds to garnish

Butter!

Method:

1. Pat fish dry with paper towel, salt lightly and put on plate in refrigerator. I like doing this before starting to chop the vegetables. It gives the fish half an hour to season. Right before you starting cooking, heat the oven to 170 degrees. Put a large plate in the warm oven and turn off the oven. This is for keeping the fish warm while the sauce reduces. Alternately, you could probably put the fish on a warm plate and tent with foil.

2. Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil over medium heat in a heavy bottomed skillet. Once shimmering, add in the red onion and carrots. Once softened (1 – 2 minutes), add in the garlic and ginger and sauté for 30 sec. Add the bell pepper (and whatever other veg you want), stir, and add wine and stock. Simmer broth and vegetables for 5 min. over medium heat.

3. While the vegetables are cooking, take the fish out and cover with sesame oil, then soy sauce. Turn a few times on the plate so that it is thoroughly coated. Arrange fish on steamer rack and top with sesame seeds.

4. Place scallions, cilantro, and any other greens (if using) on top of simmering vegetables. Place steamer rack with fish on top and drizzle with remaining soy sauce and sesame oil.  Cover skillet and steam fish until opaque in center, about 5 min. for fresh fish.

5. Remove steamer rack from pan and place on warm plate. Empty skillet through a mesh strainer into a small sauce pan and set the vegetables aside. Reduce the sauce until slightly thickened. Stir in one to two tablespoons of butter. Monte beurre, as the French would say. It’s gooooooood.

6. Time to plate! Coat a plate with rice. Sticky rice or sushi rice is particularly good. I like doing a thin round on the plate as a base. Then place a portion of vegetables on the rice, followed by one service of fish. Coat the fish with sauce and serve.

Enjoy!

BB

Asian Style Mahi Mahi over Sushi Rice

Filed under: Bites and Pieces, food, recipes |