Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Bamboo Steamed Tilapia


A couple of months back, DB~ and I bought a bamboo steamer at Crate & Barrel.  And quite frankly, I forgot about it.  I jammed it in the back of our "ethnic" cabinet and found it when cleaning out some stuff last weekend.  With some prompting from the Squiggle, I found some basic bamboo steaming ideas online and then modified it.

I got two tilapia fillets and marinaded them overnight in a jarred red chile based Thai sauce.  Tonight for dinner, I put a piece of parchment paper on the bottom of the steamer, placed green onions on the bottom, and then the marinated fish on top of that bed of green onions.  I bought a whole ginger root and (after peeling the skin) sliced it into small matchstick size pieces that were placed on top of the fish.  On top of that, I placed some more green onions for flavor.

For the actual steaming process, I put a 1/2 inch of water into the round Dutch oven and brought it to a boil. I turned the heat down to a roiling boil and then put the steamer into the water.  I did a check beforehand to ensure that the water wasn't too deep and didn't come up through the bottom of the steamer into the fish.  I placed the top of the bamboo steamer on and let the fish steam for 12 minutes.



The steaming process did keep the flavors in.  In retrospect, I probably would have steamed for 10 minutes as the fish was a touch dry.  I served the fish with some udon noodles drizzled with a garlic/ginger sauce.

I think the next time I'll try the steamer with some vegetables to see how they perform.

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