Steamed Soon Hock
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