The wife and my first newborn infant are out of town this week; they ditched me to travel to Taiwan to see my in-laws. On the bright side, this leaves me some time to play in the kitchen and my new Shun Kramer knife.
I went over to Mollie Stones (local clone of Whole Foods), not intending to buy seafood, but there was a really fresh looking rock cod that just beckoned. Normally I go to Chinese supermarkets to buy live seafood, but a combination of laziness and the beautiful looking fish made me succumb. Decided a French and Chinese technique fusion would work tonight.
Here is the before:
And after:
Prep was pretty simple. Fillet fish. Bones and head saved for future stock/soup usage. Blanch green beans. Soaked dry Chinese shiitake mushrooms in water. Mushroom water saved for later use. Season fillets with salt and white pepper. I’ve been on a butter phase recently, so I used a raw milk butter to sautee mushrooms and green beans as well as the fish in separate pans. Sauce was a scallion ginger sauce (look in any Chinese cookbook or Momofuku cookbook). Finit.
(The rest of the fish and the veg went on another plate in a heap unattractively and shoved down my gullet)