Wednesday, 26 October 2011

Jasmine Tea Smoked Sea Bass

Ingredients:
a) 1 Sea Bass fish

Seasoning:
b) Light soy sauce
c) Jasmine tea leaves (You can substitute with other tea leaf. I chose Jasmine as it is more fragrant)
d) Rice (Uncooked)
e) Sugar


Directions:
1) Season the fish with some light soy sauce for 20 minutes.
2) Coat the wok with butter and pan fry the fish over high heat till it is about 90% cooked. 
3) Fill ingredients c) to e) on an aluminium foil as base and steam the cooked fish over it for 10 minutes.
4) Serve.

* Do not move the fish too much when pan frying as the shape may distort. 

I adapted this recipe from a cooking show by MediaCorp called "3-plus-1" or " 3菜1汤"


Food ratings (10 being the best): 
My husband's rating -8/10
My rating - 7/10


The dish had a strong jasmine smell when served but when you eat the fish, there is a subtle jasmine fragrant which is pleasant and not overwhelming. The fish is cooked just nice (Pan frying it to 90% is recommended compared to having it completely cooked) and the meat is soft and juicy.

Cooking complexity (10 being hardest to cook):
My rating - 5/10  

The tough part of preparing this dish is frying the fish. Using my Neoflam wok, the fish got stuck onto the wok and flipping the fish is hard. I hated it also when oil started to splatter everywhere. Steaming the fish is easy though but you will need to keep track of the time. I am constantly worried that the aluminum foil may catch fire as it was my first time preparing this way. =p

My mom recently introduced a wok to me which she claims that frying a fish would be much easier. I will do a review on the wok in my subsequent post.

Hope you will enjoy the Jasmine Tea Smoked Sea Bass dish!