Steamed Fish Fillets with Aged Shaoxing Wine 陳紹蒸魚片

Usually, or more so I was accustomed to use rice cooking wine when steaming fish. The clear kind of Chinese rice cooking wine. However, this time I've switched to a stronger scented yellow wine, in this case, aged Shaoxing wine for a flavor boost. The end result got quite a kick to it but not over-powering to a point blanketing all the other seasonings used. Consider it a good steer away from my common seasonings.

Steamed fish fillets with aged Shaoxing wine 陳紹蒸魚片 - 

Ingredients?

• 240 grams Taiwanese snapper fillets
• 1 ripe tomato
• 140 grams/2 loosely packed cups mixed mushrooms
• 3 to 4 bok choi
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon aged Shaoxing wine
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce paste
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/8 teaspoon sugar
• Few splashes Chinese rice cooking wine 
• Tiny pinch salt
• Tiny pinch black pepper

How?

Slice the fish into smaller fillet pieces. Add a few drops of Chinese rice cooking wine and let it marinate for few minutes. It'll help reduce some fishy or earthy scent from the fish.

Destem and cut the tomato into smaller chunks. If using larger bok choi, cut or tear into smaller pieces. Destem the mushrooms. Peel and roughly chop the garlic cloves.

Take a serving plate or a container, add in fish fillets, 1 tablespoon of aged Shaoxing wine, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce paste, 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1/8 teaspoon of sugar, garlics, tomatoes, bok choy, mushrooms, tiny pinch of salt, and tiny pinch of black pepper.

Use a steamer, per my case, I used Taiwanese Tatung cooker, steam for 15 minutes. Doesn't really matter if you start steaming before or after the temperature rises, the fish used here won't get too tough or bad texture even if cooked a bit too long. Once done, turn off the power and let the residual heat to continue cooking the fish for another 5 minutes.

Remove from heat. Re-plate if needed and serve right away.

The fish used here, Taiwanese snapper, it's cheap but not the most delicious option. Sometimes it'll come with an earthy scent. So to incorporate stronger alcohol, like aged Shaoxing wine, works really well to wash away that perhaps unpleasant flavor.

On top of that, I omitted the use of sesame oil in the end because I would rather let the aged Shaoxing wine shine instead of over-mixing with also strong-scented sesame oil. If you insist, simply splash some sesame oil before serving.

You can also include some ginger and scallion, or even red chilies. Adding these extra ingredients will only boost up the flavors, don't worry about over-complicating the dish. However, with aged Shaoxing wine and garlics along, still a well-present, easy-cleaning recipe.


Other recipes using fish fillets:

• Steamed bass fillets with cordia dichotoma 破布子蒸鱸魚片
• Lemon butter baked fish fillets
• Baked tarragon salmon fillets