Tuesday, April 12, 2016

S T E A M E D  T I L A P I A 
w/ 
G I N G E R + S C A L L I O N


Heyoooo! Happy April~! 

My absolute #1 month because of so many reasons. Todd & I have birthdays in April (10th & 11th), adorable flower buds pop out of the ground, winter SHOULD be over! The list goes on..

Can you believe it.. we are already a WHOLE quarter in to the year! 2016.. where's it all going!?

Speaking of a "whole" I have been diving into cooking more with whole fish. I recently scored a good deal on whole tilapia & was dying to prepare them. I knew exactly what to make: one of my all time favorite & the über classic ginger + scallion mix!

If tilapia is not your thing this would work well with any other light, white fish (think cod, red snapper, haddock). The sauce really plays well on the fluffy, fish meat!

Since there are only a few ingredients make sure to grab the best of the best. Also, put on your tough girl/ boy chef hat with this. There were some moments where I was reminded at how gnarly preparing a whole fish is! As with everything.. practice [:

Ingredients:
Whole tilapia (1 to 3)
1 large Ginger root
1 bunch Scallions
1/2 cup Canola oil
1/2 cup Soy for seafood
(or soy sauce + sugar)

gut, de-fin, de-gill, score!

julienne into thin, matchstick slivers 



Directions:

1. First! It's all about the *mise en place*. This is the prep before you begin to get into the art of cooking! Wash ginger & scallion. Peel your ginger & chop ends off of scallions. Now, patiently cut into thin strips. This is how you julienne! Doing this gives the ingredients a more delicate touch to the dish. Note: add scallions to cold water to keep it fresh!


2. To prepare the fish remove guts & gills if they haven't been removed already. Trim off fins leaving just the tail intact. Don't like the look of the head?? Chop it off! Things get real intense & bloody when preparing fish- so if you don't like the dissection go ahead & use a filet- I won't judge you!

sweet action shot caught by todd!

1 down 2 more to go!

3. The style I steamed the fish in was "en papillote" which is a fancy French term for "in parchment". If you have a steamer, use that! Have a wide pan with room for a plate to steam in? Do it up. I basically took parchment & created a pouch where I put ALL the ingredients in & popped in an oven at 400º for 20 minutes! Easy peasy. Check out the full instructions on how to fold the pouch here from Bon Apetit! 

Leave half of ginger, scallions, & soy sauce mix to fry in a pan while your fish steams! 


Stuff the cavity! Pile it all in thurrrr


4. Enclose the fish with the parchment paper. Trust me, this takes practice! Start from the bottom and keep folding each fold together until you reach the top. Steam!
5. Place in a serving platter & top with the stirfried ginger & scallions. Serve with white rice!