Steamed Baramundi (Asian Seabass)

not quite my simpler way of serving up 'light' steamed fish but i was craving for something more flavourful....besides the baramundi had been in the freezer for a while (ok its still fresh and edible...i'm still ok after eating it). adapted from a recipe for 西湖醋魚 but fused it with HK style steamed fish. serves 4.

ingredients (a) - fish

• 1 whole medium baramundi (asian seabass)
• 4-5 tbsp chinese cooking wine
• 4-5 tbsp stones ginger wine
• sesame seed oil
  
• 2-3 tsp salt
• 4-5 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked and sliced. save mushroom stock
  
• sliced chilli
• 2-3 stalks of spring onions (use only the stems, half them and lay out on steamer tray under the fish)
  

ingredients (b) - gravy

• 4 tbsp blended fresh ginger
• 3-4 tsp blended garlic
  
• corn flour (to add to water and used for thickening gravy)
  
• dark soy sauce
• 1/4 cup chicken stock
  
• black vinegar (to taste)
  
• sugar / salt (to taste)
  
• chicken/pork oil
• 2-3 stalks of spring onions (greens)

recipe (a) - fish

• gut and clean fish. my steamer isn't big enough for the whole fish to go in so i decided to fillet it and cut it into 4 portions
• lay out spring onion stems onto tray
• marinate fish with ginger wine, chinese cooking wine and salt. set aside for approx 10 min
• lay fish into steaming tray (on top of spring onion), add sliced mushrooms and chilli to tray
• add in some mushroom stock
  
• bring water to boil at high heat and put in fish
• steam fish for 15-20 minutes
• when cooked, remove fish but reduce heat to low (you need to put the fish back in later)
• remove the fillets (w/o the sauce that resulted from steaming) onto a serving plate and put them back into steamer to keep warm

recipe (b) - gravy

• put sauce (with mushroom and spring onion from the steam tray) into a small pot and it'd be the base for gravy
• add blended garlic, chicken stock, chicken oil, dark soy sauce, vinegar, salt/ sugar
• bring to slow boil and add corn flour solution to thicken gravy
• to serve, spread blended ginger and sliced spring onion onto fish and pour gravy over it

if the fish is fresh, it should not have too much of a freshwater fishiness. besides the chicken oil, ginger & vinegar is suppose to work towards flavouring the dish. :)