Sweet and Salty Steamed Rockfish with Green Beans

This meal took me back to my kismet wheelhouse....


At the market this weekend I was perusing the fish case and the weighing the guilt labels against the price tags when figured I'd just ask the guy in orange waders what was good today (sidebar...are the waders really necessary inside of the grocery store? are there water hazards behind the scenes in Whole Foods?).  He went straight for the Rockfish which he had filleted himself that morning from a very noble beast, as his story goes.  The guilt meter to price point worked in my favor and I went in for a beautiful skin on fillet.


Over in produce, the green beans looked spectacular so I grabbed a fistful.  There was a lovely exotic garlic with a red tinge to it, so I grabbed that along with some ginger root, as I do most weeks.  Leaving the area, I snagged a nice hefty navel orange, since I needed the zest for the Banana Power Muffins and off I went.


Today, like most others, I was working on dinner in the back of my head all day long.  By the time I got home, I was about 90% there....


Time: 1 hr
Yield: dinner for 2


Ingredients:


Juice of 1 heavy navel orange
2 inches ginger, grated*
1 long thin dried asian chili or 0.5 t red pepper flakes
2 large cloves of pungent garlic, mashed thru a press
1-2 cups inexpensive white wine
3 T low sodium dark soy sauce
3 T mirin
2 t rice vinegar
8-10 oz Rockfish fillet*, skin on (or any fish you like, with or without skin...would work great with tofu too)
green beans for 2, trimmed (or snow peas, or sugar snaps, or sticks of zucchini and carrots or spinach for wilting....)
0.5 c wheat berries*
1.5 c short grain brown rice*
2 c water


Method:

• bring water to a boil in a small sauce pan, season with salt and stir in wheat berries and rice.  Cover, reduce to a simmer and cook 45 minutes or until done.  Let rest covered for 5-10 min, fluff with for and serve.
• In a small sauce pan or fry pan, combine oj, chili, 1 t rice vinegar and 1/2 of the ginger, simmer until reduced to nearly a syrup.  You can add water and let it reduce again if you're not ready when it is.
• In a small bowl, stir together 1 T soy, 1 t vinegar and 2 T mirin - set aside.
• In a large fry pan or wok, combine wine, remaining mirin, soy, ginger, garlic and black pepper, bring to a low steamy boil.  (If you don't have a bamboo steamer, use a dutch oven that a wire rack will set in for steaming or even just simmer the fish right in the liquid)
• Place fish, skin side down in the 'high basket' of a bamboo steamer, set right in the pan or wok and cover with the steamer lid.  Steam the fish covered until just done....this is highly variable.  It can take a 1/2 inch fillet with no skin about 5 minutes or a 1.5 inch fillet with skin about 20 min - either way, its really hard to 'over steam' especially if you have the skin on.  Feel free to open up the steamer every 5 min or so to poke or cut the fish to test for doneness...its going to be great no matter how much you bother it.
• Just before done, pop your beans in the microwave or use the stackable other basket to steam them on top of the fish until tender crisp - maybe 2 min.
• Meanwhile, pop the soy mix in the micro for 1-2 minutes to heat and thicken a bit.
• To serve, remove the top tier of the basket and leave the lid on.  Plate the fish, sauce with the orange reduction.  Add your beans to the plate and drizzle with the soy mix.  Finally, plop some grains on the plate and maybe sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds...make sure the grains are between the fish and beans so salty sweet soy and the sweet tart orange reduction meet up on your starch...oh so good.

*Helpful Hints:

Ginger - select ginger that is big enough around for easy peeling, use a carrot peeler or a small sharp knife to get the tough skin off.  There is a device called a ginger grater with is worth the couple of bucks if you cook with fresh ginger a lot.  Otherwise you can squish it thru a garlic press, slice into thin disks and mince or use a micro-plane.
Fish - any fish you like, with or without skin...would work great with tofu too
Wheat berries - these are a nice chewy hearty grain, they're about the size of rice and look like this. You can find them in the bulk section or in the grains.  If you can't find em, try Israeli couscous or more rice.
Short grain brown rice - just a different variety of brown rice, its plump and chewy and just lovely.  If you can't find it at your store, just go with whatever floats your boat.