Cantonese Sea Bass With Shitake Mushrooms, Leek & Ginger

A quickie from the Clean & Lean Diet Cookbook.

Feeds 4

Ingredients

4 x 100g fillets sea bass

5cm Piece of ginger, thinly sliced

50g Shitake mushrooms, chopped

2 leeks, julienned

150ml organic chicken stock (or half a Knorr stock pot)

30ml oyster sauce

30ml soy sauce

30ml sesame oil

50g baby mustard cress

Method 

I adapted the method as I don't have a steamer...yet!

Top the fillets with the sliced ginger and half of the mushrooms.

Steam the fish for 7 minutes, or for 15-20 mins, en papillote (fancy way of saying in a tin foil/ parchment paper parcel) in the oven at around 200 deg. until the fish is nearly cooked through

Remove the ginger from the fish and shallow fry in vegetable oil for 3-4 minutes until golden and crisp, then drain on kitchen paper.

Let the fried ginger cool for a few minutes, then add the leek and some of the ginger back to the fish, seal up the parcel and cook for a further 3 mins if steaming, or until cooked through in the oven.

In a hot pan, reduce the chicken stock (I couldn't source organic stock in time), oyster sauce, soy sauce and the remaining mushrooms until thick. Add the sesame oil. Mmm, mmm!

Transfer the sea bass to the plates with some baby cress and pour/ spoon the sauce around the fish.

This was so simple to make. From start to finish, it was about an hour, but would be a lot quicker if you stick to the method properly..unlike some, ahem...

The flavours are incredible too, although I waaaaay over did it with the stock and oyster sauce. As you can see with the pic of the full stock pot thrown in. There's a spoon mark where I thought I should remove some of it..and then thought better. You do not need much stock in this, it's so tasty just as it is.

Also, of note for those in teeny tiny apartments like me, minimal prep so you don't need much space. Best of all, it's very low odour. In fact, all that was left was a fresh smell of ginger and leek. Yum!

Also, it was the first time I julienned anything..at least, properly. Thanks YouTube!

It might seem like nowt to everyone else, but my chopping skills are a bit all over the shop.

I'll be def trying more recipes from the book. Julienning the Shitake out of everything, so I will.

Not surprisingly, there's nowt in the book for bananas in syrup (a freebie from the Oriental Emporium at the Jervis Luas stop, score!). What to do..what to do...?

Maybe now when I hear 'Cantonese', I won't immediately think of Cassandra in Wayne's World...