Steamed Whole Fish with Fermented Black Beans

 

Alright, so we got two whole, gutted trout for our meat share. Now, after living in Hawai'i, I LOVE fish head soup. However, not wanting people to vomit at my eccentricities I decided to steam the fish whole, your welcome.

We cooked the rice in a sushi rice cooker, if you don't have one here's what to do to make sticky rice in a pot. As I have already said, you need to wash the rice 5-7 times, then you fill the pot with enough water to hit the first crease in your middle finger, cover with a vent and cook. Takes about 20-25 minutes.

Now, on to the fermented black beans, I mean damn are those things offensive. SOAK, for the love of god, soak them for at least 30 minutes, it will help. You will not need salt for this dish guys, trust me. After I soaked the beans I mixed them with garlic, shallot, ginger, and lime wedges, stuffed the fish and took whatever I had left over and put it on the top.





The steamer set up is easy if you have one of these bad boys, if not just use a colander, or strainer on top of boiling water. Make sure to cover it.

This is what they look like right before the steamer, kinda shiny and limp looking, but after a couple of minutes in the steamer they come out looking fantastic. Make sure you oil whatever you are using to steam the fish, otherwise they will stick. The biggest problem that I had with the meal were the ribs of the fish just got in the way. No one like tiny fish bones jabbing you in the gums.

For garnish I just sauteed some long sliced green onion in sesame oil, scallions are delicious.

Sorry about the delay in posts, it was my birthday this week and I had to trade some days for the time off. Getting even closer now to the point of no return, keep following and I'll keep posting.