Steamed Black Cod with Soy-Chile Sauce

This recipe is a Bon Appetit Test Kitchen Recipe, I found it in some of my 10 million (or what seems like that many) recipes.  Out of all the kitchen equipment I have I did not have a bamboo steamer.  I had always thought about getting one but never did.  You can pick one up for about $30.00 which is a really great deal.  The one I purchased is a 2 tier steamer, so look for other recipes to come.  The fish we get from a company called www.SeaBear.com, which has outstanding seafood.

This recipe can be somewhat confusing and I am hoping to break it down to better understand.  I also attached pictures as I went along to help.

Ingredients:
1 head of garlic (remove 3 cloves, peel and slice and cut the remaining head in half crosswise)
6 scallions, trimmed (take 2 scallions and cut into 2 inch sections, take 4 scallions and thinly slice)
1 - 5 inch piece of ginger, peeled and cut into matchstick size slices
1/2 of a lemon
4 - 4 ounce filets of black cod (I used just 2 for this recipe)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Kosher Salt
2 tablespoons tamari (or soy sauce)
2 Thai chiles or 1 serrano chile, thinly sliced (I used a serrano chile because the store was out of the thai chiles.  A note the serrano chile can be spicy, to reduce the spiciness remove the seeds)
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped

Combine the cut head of garlic, the cut 2 inch sections of scallions, 1 tablespoon of ginger, and 4 cups of water into a pot large enough to fit a steamer basket (I used my electric wok).  Squeeze lemon on top of the water, add the lemon half to the pot and bring to a boil.  Once water boils, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.   Transfer 1/4 cup of the liquid from pot to a small bowl; set aside for sauce.  Add 2 cups hot water to pot and bring to a boil.

Set aside 1/4 cup of sliced scallions and 1 tablespoon of ginger.  Line steamer basket with parchment paper (I cut mine down so that the steam holes would show on the sides).  Scatter half of the sliced garlic, half of the remaining sliced scallions, and half of the remaining ginger, on top of parchment spreading evenly.  Rinse fish, pat dry, place fish skin side down on top of parchment paper that had been scattered with garlic, scallion and ginger.  Brush fish with oil and sprinkle with kosher salt.  Scatter remaining garlic, scallions and ginger over fish.  Set steamer over pot, cover and steam fish for 12  to 18 minutes until fish is flaky (timing depends on thickness of fish).

While fish is steaming, Stir the scallions and ginger that you set aside, add tamari, chile, cilantro and reserved liquid to make sauce.

Transfer fish to plate and drizzle with sauce.

Steaming Liquid

Fish ready to be steamed.  Sitting on top of parchment paper, scallions, ginger and garlic.

The fish finished drizzled with sauce served over rice. 

Lemon Butter Black Cod

Fish makes such a great meal and so good for you.  Black cod is high in Omega 3's.   Here is what we had for dinner.

Black Cod with Lemon Butter
Preheat the oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit.   Place a piece of foil onto a baking sheet (this will make clean up easier) and create an edge so that the lemon butter mixture you pour over the fish won't run off.  Place about 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter in a pan on the stove, add the juice of 1 lemon, stir while melting butter.   Add some fresh ground pepper and some salt to the butter mixture, stir and remove from heat.  Pour over fish.  Place fish in oven and bake for about 20 to 30 minutes until fish flakes with fork.  About half-way through baking baste the fish.

Asparagus
Place a pot of water onto stove and bring to a boil.  Snap asparagus (hold a piece of asparagus in both hands and bend the asparagus, the asparagus will break at the tender spot of the asparagus).  Don't throw away the tough end (the part you don't want to eat), save those (stick them in the freezer) to make vegetable broth with at a later date.  Add asparagus to the boiling water, reduce heat and cook for about 5 minutes.  I cooked these longer than what I would normally do because the stalks of the asparagus were much larger.  Remove from pan when done, place on a platter.  I drizzled these with a little bit of a lemon pepper oil.  (It is an oil that I picked up somewhere and is excellent over fresh cooked vegetables). A helpful tip for your summer garden is to save the water your vegetables are cooked with, let water cool and use that to water your garden.  Not only will you be saving water but your plants will benefit from the nutrients left over in the water.  

Sliced Mango and Strawberries
A long time ago you couldn't get fresh fruits like mango's in the grocery store but now you can and to have these fruits fresh are so much better.  If you have never had fresh mango I recommend that you try one, they are so sweet and delicious.  Mango's are rich in pre-biotic fiber, vitamins, minerals, poly-phenolic flavonoid (helps to fight against certain types of cancers) antioxidant compounds plus a great source of vitamin A just to name a few.  Here is a video that will help you to learn to cut a mango, it is really easy.

Side Salad with Italian Dressing
A side salad was a nice accompaniment with this meal.  It consisted of romaine lettuce, tomato and a little bit of grated Parmesan cheese.  Here is the recipe for the homemade Italian dressing:
Place all ingredients into a jar.
1/2 cup white wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar (I used balsamic this time)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 pressed garlic cloves
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup olive oil
Shake until mixed.  Pour over salad.

Slow Roasted Black Cod

We bought fish from a company called Sea Bear.  They ship directly to your house (or where ever).  So we thought we would try Black Cod.  I have never cooked black cod but have had it out at a restaurant some time or another.  I found this recipe on the Internet (Wrightfood) and thought I would give it a try.  In the original recipe it calls for capers, I usually have them in my kitchen as a staple but for some reason my disappeared and was not replaced.  So instead of running to the store just for capers I decided to make the sauce a lemon butter sauce with a splash of white wine.

Here is the recipe:
Black Cod with Lemon Butter Wine Sauce
Black Cod filets, skin on cut into 2 pieces
olive oil
sea salt
pinch of finely chopped thyme
juice of half a lemon
splash of wine (I am using a Viognier, which we are also drinking with dinner from King Family Vineyards)
3 tablespoons of butter
Take the fish out of the refrigerator, pour some olive oil over the fish and let sit for 15 minutes or so until the fish reaches room temperature (or it no longer feels cold).  Preheat oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit.  Take the fish and place on a parchment paper lined baking dish.  Sprinkle with a little sea salt, place in oven and bake for 20 minutes (depends on how thick the pieces area) or until fish flakes with a fork.
For the Sauce: Melt about 2 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan.  When the butter has melted add the lemon juice and then whisk in a splash of wine, off the heat add 1 more tablespoon of butter and thyme, whisk until smooth.  Serve over fish.

Glazed Carrots
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon honey
water
chopped parsley
Peel carrots, cut off top and bottom of carrot.  Slice in half and in half again.  You want the carrots to all be roughly the same size when cut so that they take about the same amount of time to cook.  Add the carrots to a skillet along with the butter and honey.  Add enough water to just cover the carrots.  Boil over high heat and then reduce to a strong simmer.  Stir carrots from time to time.  When the liquid begins to thicken and reduce, remove from heat.  Add parsley and toss.

Caesar Salad
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon coarse black pepper
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 to 2 teaspoons sugar
2 pressed garlic cloves
1/4 cup Romano or Parmesan cheese
1 cup vegetable oil or extra virgin olive oil
Mix together.
Add just enough dressing to coat romaine lettuce but not too much.  Sprinkle each salad with fresh grated Parmesan cheese and fresh ground pepper.