Tom Kha Steamed Fish

It's been a while since I shared a lazy and tasty food huh?

One of my recent lazy tasty discovery is....using instant seasoning mixes (bumped up with fresh herbs and spices) to steam fish!

I can't believe I haven't done this earlier. Very easy, and it offers more variety of flavor combos when I am bored of the classic soy sauce or black bean steamed fish. I used tom kha instant seasoning mix this time, but I've also tried tom yum, opor, and rendang. All yummy! I will surely try more flavors...welcome to the world of endless instant seasoning possibilities!

If you hate using instant seasoning mixes (I bow in respect to you), feel free to grind your own paste using fresh ingredients, it could be as quick as a few pulses in a food processor, and I am sure it will be as tasty, if not tastier ;)


Ingredients
Fresh herbs & spices (you can omit all of these fresh herbs and spices if you are feeling lazy)
- a stalk of lemongrass, cut into sections and bruised
- galangal, bruised
- some kaffir lime leaves, cut thinly
- 1 or 2 red chillies, cut thinly

Main ones
- 1 of your favorite fish, cleaned and pat dry
- 1 pack of your favorite instant seasoning mix (I used Tom Kha)

Rub the fish with instant seasoning paste, scatter the fresh herbs and spices on top, and steam until the fish is just done.

Check the doneness by inserting a chopstick into the thickest part of the fish, the chopstick should go through easily, mine took about 10 minutes. Now I am really just saying stuff to make this "recipe" look longer...actually it is really one-sentence easy ^_^'

Experiment, enjoy and share!

Steamed Fish with Fremented Black Beans, Garlic, and Chilli Recipe

A classic Chinese dish. Very easy to prepare and super tasty!

I used to hate steamed fish (don't we all?). Ugh. It's not something that I normally had when I was still in Indonesia (back then, we preferred deep fried fish with sweet and sour sauce heheheh). I was just not used to eating fish skin being silky smooth (I would think that silky smooth = slimy), and I felt that the steamed fish with ginger and scallion served with soy sauce is just too...subtle for my taste. I want explosions. Subtle isn't my thang.

After a few years in Hong Kong, I learnt to appreciate and enjoy steamed fish. Yes, even the subtle kind...but this explosive one is one of my favorites. Never gets bored of this flavor combo!

Recipe
- 1 fish (choose your favorite. I love pomfret/grass carp/hung yao. You can  use fillet too), cleaned well
- 1 cm ginger, julienned
- 2 chilli, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tsp fermented black beans
Place fish on a plate. Scatter some of the minced stuff on top of the fish and in the cavity of the fish, steam until the fish is just done. The above fish takes about 8-10 minutes to steam. You can use a steamer or a wok. Fill wok with hot water, about 1.5cm deep, place a shallow bowl or plate upside down, place the plate with the fish on top of that bowl, cover wok and steam.

If you want a short cut (I always do), you can opt to not use ginger and chilli, simply buy Lee Kum Kee's black bean and garlic sauce and 1-2 tsp all over your fish before steaming.

Perfect with (lots of) rice.