Hong Kong style – 好心人

Steamed Soon Hock

May 7, 2016 by Ho Lang

Steamed Soon Hock

I purposely titled this as Steamed Soon Hock for the fun of it. I guess it doesn’t really matter since it is after all the best fish in the whole of Singapore. Any style you cook it, it would be fantastic. For this, I cooked it Hong Kong style.

I was at the wet market this morning and the fishmonger uncle greeted me as “老板!” and immediately I felt a damn shiok feeling. The morning suddenly seem brighter and the $50 in my pocket started singing “so long farewell..”. It’s always like that at the fishmonger’s. His fish is fresh and unfortunately expensive. But today he was selling Soon Hock! And they were going for $15 a kilogram. I got one and it was only $9!! Unbelievable.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 Soon Hock (it was about 600 grams which was sufficient for the two of us.)
2 stalks Lemon Grass (I decided to use lemon grass to flavour the stomach of the fish as ginger might be a little too strong)
2 stalks Leeks (I juliened the leeks into 3 inch lengths, this is the garnishing for the fish after steaming.)
3 tbsp Kikkoman Soya Sauce (I use Kikkoman because it is I feel the taste is quite consistent.)
5 tbsp Olive Oil (I pour hot oil over the fish after steaming it, so this oil has to be smoking hot. I pour it gently little by little so that it cooks the leeks as well.)
1 stalk Coriander Leaves (for garnishing – nothing else)
1 tsp Sesame Seed Oil (for flavour)

Method

1. Wash the Soon Hock and make sure the fish is gutted and cleaned.

2. Boil a kettle of water and prepare to steam the fish in the wok (I assume you know how to steam fish?). Once the water is ready, pour the water into the wok and prepare the steamer tray for steaming.

3. Chop the lemon grass and stuff the stomach cavity of the Soon Hock (fish). Steam the fish for 15 minutes. In another pot, boil oil over a small fire. Boil the oil until smoking hot. (For this you got to time yourself.)

4. While waiting for the fish to steam, you can juliene the leeks into fine strips.
5. Once the fish is cooked. Place the leeks on the fish and pour the hot oil over the leeks (to cook them) and drizzle the soya sauce and sesame seed oil over the fish. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Bon Appetit!

Fresh Soon Hock fish

Chop the lemon grass

Stuff the cavity of the fish with lemon grass

Leeks

Coriander leaves

Steam Sea Bass Hong Kong Style

November 11, 2014 by Ho Lang

Steam Sea Bass Hong Kong Style

Wifey asked me what was for dinner tonight and all I had in the fridge was this Sea Bass, and I declared, “Thai-style Steam Sea Bass”. She cringed at the sound of “Thai-style..” and understandably so, I guess we have been eating quite a lot of Thai-style Sea Bass or Pla Neung Manao and she is beginning to think that my cooking skills are severely limited.

So I decided that I would put her out of her misery and do the Sea Bass differently this time around. I remember a simpler way of cooking Sea Bass would be to just steam it with sliced ginger and spring onions drizzled with light soy sauce.

I found this really good video by this Hong Kong Chef Andy Chu and I thought this guy speaks like me. So just imagine that it was me that is preparing this dish, and follow the video if you have a problem listening to instructions.

Recipe

Ingredients:

1 whole Sea Bass *descaled, gutted*

1 stalk Spring Onion

3 inches Ginger

Light Soy Sauce

Method:

1. Sliced Ginger, and chopped the spring onion in the same way as Andy does it. Line the plate where you are steaming the fish. Then placed the Sea Bass on top of the ingredients.

2. Steam the Sea Bass for 7-10 minutes under high heat. I don’t use the kind of steamer that Andy uses, and my pot with lid works the same as well. Once Sea Bass is fully steamed, shred finely ginger and spring onions and then place it on the top of the fish.

3. Boil a pot of oil till very hot and then drizzle it over the top of the fish. Drizzle light soy sauce over the fish for taste and shine.

Bon Appetit!