Microwave Steamed Fish (Branzino/Bar/Sea Bass)

Steamed Sea Bass

We celebrated our move into the house this weekend with a bottle of Prosecco and a homecooked meal : Microwave Steamed Fish (Branzino/Bar/Seabass) and Wok-Fried Vegetables.

Veg in Wok

One really cool thing about this house is that I've finally a gas cooker after all these years of either ceramic or electric plates. Gas cooker = Wok cooking, man. Now Lotus can wok. Thank God I didn't give away my IKEA wok (new, never used, but hanging around for at least 5 years and starting to literally rust) like I wanted to just a few months ago.

I also inaugurated my new microwave oven by steaming fish in it. Ja ja ja...

We ate out in our terrace. Overlooking the fields. What a view (of nothing).

View from Terrace

Actually, I just discovered a castle across the field with a wineyard between us. Hubby said that we should walk across and go say hello to whoever lives there. I told him that I would prefer to drive to the front door and announce myself first. You never know if they shoot trespassers.

Another View

The fish was delicious, by the way. And it only took 5 minutes to cook it in the microwave oven.

400g Fresh Sea Bass (scales etc removed)

1 tbsp Vegetable Oil

Half a rice bowl of Sherry

1 Tsp Sugar

3 Tbsp Light Soy Sauce

1 Tbsp Sesame oil

1 Tsp Old Chinese Vinegar

1/2 Tsp Chilli Oil

1 Tbsp Oyster Sauce

Salt and Pepper

2 Tbsp Water

Finely sliced fresh Ginger

Coriander Leaves

On a microwaveable plate, dribble some oil and place the cleaned fish on it. Make a few cuts on the top side of the fish and arrange the ginger slices and coriander leaves on it. Mix the ingredients in a bowl and pour the sauce over the fish. Cover the dish tightly with a microwave-safe plastic film (but leaving the 2 ends slightly open so as to let out some steam during the cooking). Microwave on high (mine's 850W) for 5 minutes. Basta.

When you've removed the plastic film, turn the fish over to the other side so that it gets some sauce too and there should be quite a bit of sauce on the plate. The babies kept asking for more rice so that they could pour the sauce on it. Nice way to make them eat fish.

I would be doing quite a bit of cooking from now on even if I should still be in my boxes. Like I said, we have guests the coming week (family of 5 from Paris) and they'll be around for 4 days. You don't want to go to the restaurant all the time when you have 6 kids with you.