Steamed Fish and Tofu with Chinese Black Beans

TS:
We weren't even going to post about this dish at all, as it was something JS threw together very quickly to feed the household. However, we made this twice in two weeks, so perhaps there's something to this dish after all.

It seems that we are skewing very home-style for our recent Weekend Wokking entries.

JS:
There's a pattern going on with our household meals, a pattern I find a bit weird myself. If a dish goes over well in our household, I tend to repeat it within the next two weeks. Maybe I'm subconsciously checking if the first time was a fluke or not? After repeating the dish, it then falls into the black hole of my memory, who knows when to be resurrected again.

I wanted to get some fish onto our table last week, seeing we had gone fish-less at home for a couple of weeks now. The lucky fish of the week is sole, conveniently already in fillets. I didn't want to muck around with flour and butter and do some sort of batch-cookery, so sole meunière was out of the question.



JS:
Besides, given my usual hurry and impatience to get dinner done, a delicate fish like sole will usually be manhandled to pieces.

So, I thought, why not just steam the fillets the Chinese way, with some ginger, scallions, Shaoxing wine, and black beans? It's easy and the sole fillets gets to the table unscathed.

Black Beans


TS:
These are actually soy beans that have been dried/fermented/salted. These are the beans that are used to make black bean sauce (usually available prepared in jars), like in Stir-fried Pork with Black Bean Sauce, or in Clams in Black Bean Sauce.

About.com: Chinese Food - Fermented Black Beans

Tofu, Two Kinds

sole with soft tofu

TS:
The first time JS made the dish, we had soft tofu on hand. We layered the soft tofu and the sole fillets. When the dish finished cooking, the tofu and fish have become one: each piece consisted layers of fish and tofu.


sole with firm Northern-style tofu

TS:
The second time, we used Northern-style tofu (as seen here). In this case, JS simply added the tofu cubes into the dish without the fancy layering.

For this dish, I'm thinking most any kind of tofu would work -- and there are a lot of different kinds available.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tofu

JS:
I didn't even have to get the steamer out, as I just put the ingredients in a big enough platter, covered the whole thing with Saran-wrap, and microwaved until done.

Serve with white rice and some green vegetables and it's quite a healthy, hassle-free weeknight meal.



Recipe
Steamed Fish and Tofu with Chinese Black Beans

8 sole fillets
1 2" piece of ginger, cut into slivers
2 stalks green onions, cut into slivers
cilantro (optional)
1 tbsp black beans, rinsed and drained
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
1 bird's eye chili
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 blocks tofu, in thick slices or in big cubes

Quantities serve as a guide. Feel free to adjust the amount of ingredients according to your taste.

Place all ingredients onto a platter. Steam until fish is done. Alternatively, cover with plastic wrap and microwave until fish is cooked through.

Serve with white rice and green vegetables.