I’m not even sure if this counts as a “recipe”, since there really isn’t any “cooking” involved! A reader e-mailed me and asked how I like to cook fish. I actually don’t cook a lot of fish (in the stir-fry sense), instead I usually steam them.

The type of fish we always use is tilapia (called 鰂魚 or 黑立 in Cantonese). I usually buy them from my local Chinese grocery store, where the butcher would use a fish net, and grab the fish from a large full tank of swimming tilapia. Hopefully the butcher does a good job removing the scales on the tilapia, otherwise you’ll have to do that when you bring it back home.

For the sauce, I use a specific soy sauce labeled “Seasoned soy sauce for seafood”. I would say that if you have the regular soy sauce, that should be fine. It made sense for us to buy this bottle since we have fish at least once every two weeks or so.

If you look very closely, you’ll notice that I’m actually running out. Time to get more!

• 1 tilapia
• soy sauce for seafood (I use about 1 tablespoon)
• 1 teaspoon of oyster sauce
• 3 pieces of pickled ginger
• ginger cut into matchsticks (optional)
• handful of green onions & coriander for garnish

• Depending on how well the butcher prepared the fish, you shouldn’t have to remove any scaling or guts. However, you should still clean it with running cold water. Once cleaned, place it on a dish, and if you had ginger (optional ingredient), sprinkle it around the fish (whoa, I just made a rhyme). Next, spread the pickled ginger on top of the fish.
  
  
• Chop the green onion and coriander, mix them together, and set aside.

1. Prepare the food steamer. I should note that I use a stove top steamer that has water filled at the bottom, so the cooking time may vary. Once the water comes to a boil, place the dish containing the fish into the steamer for approximately 8-10 minutes. For larger fish, you may need to go a tad over 10 minutes. Be careful to not overcook the fish.
2. Once the time is up, take the dish out (watch out, it is hot hot hot!!). Place the oyster sauce on top of the fish, then pour in the soy sauce. Garnish with the green onions & coriander.

The house-hunting is taking up a quite a bit of my time, that’s why it seems like my recipes have been coming along slowly on this site. I apologize to everyone, I’d like to get back to my usual routine of consistent posts.

This recipe is actually super easy, with minimal preparation work. We will be making use of fish paste, an ingredient that is usually used to spread on vegetables, such as bell peppers, and then pan-fried.

I took a sample photo of two different containers of what the fish paste looks like. It was near the tofu and seafood section, so that might be where you want to start. The container is tiny, and looks like the same type of container you would find potato salad in.





Notice the first photo has no ingredient label! We used it anyway, even though we don’t know what exactly “Fish Paste - All Kinds” really mean :) The second photo, on the other hand, seems more descriptive.

As for the tofu, we just bought the small container that contains 6 pieces, but we only used 3 pieces.

• 300 g of fish paste
• 3 pieces of tofu (about 420 g)
• 1 teaspoon of chicken broth powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of corn starch
• 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil
• green onions for garnish
• pinch of salt and pepper

• Allow the tofu to settle on a plate so that it dries. Remove any excess water.
  
  

1. Place the fish paste and tofu on a plate/dish, and add the chicken broth powder, corn starch, sesame oil, a pinch of salt, and a pinch of pepper. This plate will be placed in a steamer, so choose an appropriate sized plate.
   
   
   
   
2. Using a large spoon, mash the ingredients together into a unfirom mixture. This can take a couple of minutes. Once thoroughly mixed, make the surface nice and flat.
   
   
   
   
3. Prepare the food steamer. I should note that I use a stove top steamer that has water filled at the bottom, so the cooking time may vary. Once the water comes to a boil, place it in the steamer for approximately 8 minutes (or until cooked).
4. Garnish with green onions.

For the next two posts (including this one), I’m going to do something a little different. As a food blogger, it’s part of my day-to-day duty to surf on other food blogs and discover other great recipes. Not only do I get the unique chance of diversifying my knowledge, I get to communicate with great people! In addition, given the advancement of technology, we’re not just limited to recipes we see on the Food Network anymore. Instead, we get the unique exposure to recipes from the common household all over the world!

So for the next couple of posts, I’m going to be posting recipes that I actually tried that were posted by fellow food bloggers. For the first one, I’m using Kitchen Flavour’s “Stir-Fry Garoupa Fillet with Spring Onions”. Kitchen Flavours is from Malaysia, and has *amazing* recipes! Check out more if you have time. See the original post here.

This dish is very flavorful (with the spring onions and ginger), and the fish is packed with lots of juices. It really did have a strong “fishy” taste to it! Just to get the naming convention out of the way, the term “garoupa” is Portuguese for “grouper”, which may be more widely used in North America.

I made the mistake of not using a non-stick wok, and that is why you will notice that the texture does not look smooth at all, and little fragments of fish can be seen. If you look at Kitchen Flavour’s site, they have a better depiction!

• 2 slices of garoupa (grouper)
• 2-3 stalks of spring onions
• 8-10 pieces of thinly sliced ginger
• 2-3 chopped garlic cloves
• dash of white pepper
• 2 tablespoons of Chinese cooking wine
• 2 tablespoons of sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil
• a pinch of salt

• To prepare the garoupa (grouper), follow these great steps from Kitchen Flavors! Here is a photo of two slices of garoupa for those unsure of what it looks like from the grocery store:
  
  
  
  
• Separate the meat from the bones (Tip: cut fish when it is partially frozen, it will be easier to slice).
  
  
  
  
• Cut into small bite-sized pieces:
  
  
  
  
• Cut the spring onions into 2 inch sections, separating the white portion from the green. All of the prepared ingredients:
  
  
  
  
• Marinade the fish with Chinese cooking wine, dash of white pepper and a pinch of salt. Do not add too much salt, as you can add more during the stir-fry. Marinate for about 20-30 minutes.

1. Just before cooking, gently stir about 2 tablespoons of sesame oil into the bowl containing the garoupa so that they won’t stick together.
2. Heat the cooking oil, and saute the garlic and ginger together for about 2 minutes until they are light brown and fragrant. Add in the white portion of the spring onions and continue to stir for about 30 seconds.
3. Add in garoupa and stir gently until it is cooked (will turn white). The fish will release a little of its own juices, which is very tasty! Add in about 2 tablespoons of water and add salt to taste. This will take about 4-5 minutes (depending on the thickness of the fish).
4. Add in the rest of the spring onions, stir and place on a serving plate. Serve hot. Enjoy!

Basa is a type of catfish from South East Asia, and bought frozen, usually as a pair of white fillets (deboned as well). It’s actually a bit sturdy (compared to other fish), so it’s great for a stir-fry! I recently mentioned to someone that I was going to make a stir-fry using fish, and was met with a confused response. I think she was used to having fish steamed, or pan-fried, but not in a stir-fry!

Also this fish is quite inexpensive, as I paid around $3 CAD for the two fillets at a local Chinese grocery store! (I thought I took a photo of the packaging, but I must have forgotten! I will update this post shortly and post a photo to show you what the packaging looks like).

**EDIT**
So I went to my local Chinese grocery store and snapped a photo of what the frozen basa fillet would look like:


As you can see, it is quite a large fillet!

For this recipe, feel free to use any vegetables of your choice. As you can see from the photo, I used green peppers and celery.

Basa fillet is a popular fish my parents like to cook with. Stay tuned for more recipes using basa, as I will be learning from them!

This recipe may take about 20 minutes from start to finish. The preparation work may take up to 10 minutes, while the stir-frying should take up at most 8-10 minutes.

• 2 basa fillets, cut into medium bite-sized pieces
• 2 stalks of celery cut into small pieces
• 1 green pepper cut into small pieces
• 3-4 chopped garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon of chicken broth mix powder
• 1 teaspoon of cooking wine (rice wine)
• 2 teaspoon of corn starch
• 2 teaspoon of sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon of fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
• 3 tablespoons of water
• a pinch of salt

• Clean the basa with cold water, and pat dry. When dry, marinate the basa with the chicken broth mix, cooking wine, 1 teaspoon of the corn starch, sesame oil, and black pepper.
  
  Here is a photo of what the basa looks like after marinating:
  
  

1. In a preheated wok or pan, heat the cooking oil, then add half of the chopped garlic. Once the garlic starts to turn a little brown, saute the basa. Even though I mentioned at the beginning that the basa is quite sturdy (compared to other fish), be careful not to violently stir-fry, or you will end up with tiny basa fragments. Once the basa is cooked (which may take up to 5 minutes), remove from the wok (or pan) and set aside.
2. Using the same wok (or pan), re-heat and add the remaining garlic, and saute the vegetables (in my case, the celery and green pepper). Mix in the water, salt, 1 teaspoon of the corn starch, fish sauce, and sugar.
3. Allow the sauce to come to a boil while the vegetables are cooked to your liking.
4. Place the basa back into the wok (or pan), and stir-fry for another 30 seconds.
5. This is an optional step, but I like the scent of the sesame, so I tend to finish off by adding about 1 more teaspoon of sesame oil. Ready to serve!