Steamed Halibut Fillets with Garlic Oil to Help Ring in Chinese New Year

These steamed halibut fillets with garlic oil are an incredibly easy meal to whip up that is super moist, fluffy and simply delicious.

Monday, January 23rd, 2012 is the Chinese New Year. It is the Year of the Dragon, the Professor’s favorite mythical creature. One of my culinary goals for this year is venture out into cooking from other cultures that I don’t know much about – culinary speaking.

I love Chinese food, but I don’t often cook it. I find it a bit intimidating, actually. One of my good friends who is Chinese, Lois, was born and raised in Los Angeles and her parents owned a Chinese restaurant. She was kind enough to cook a Chinese banquet for our two families to celebrate the new year, life and good friends.

We made way too much food, ate way too much food and had way too much fun doing it all! It started a new tradition for us, cooking, drinking and laughing that I know we will continue with for years to come. And I am happy to share these Chinese recipes with you!

We actually had 2 or 3 main courses that evening, but today I am going to talk about my favorite, these. It is a ridiculously simple meal to prepare, and I’ve made it several times since this fabulous dinner.

The only fancy equipment you need is a bamboo steam basket. I’m sure you could use those collapsable metal steam baskets, but the bamboo steamers fit more and are compact steamers. I just love them and use them all of the times. For this meal, we used a 9-inch cake pan because were feeding 10 of us. Worked beautifully!

These steamed halibut fillets took minimal effort to put together, requiring only 30 minutes of marinade time. And the marinade is oh so simple: sesame oil, ginger, salt and pepper. Rub it all over the halibut filets and let it set.

After 30 minutes, rub the halibut with cornstarch and place them in the steam basket. Here’s the best part, it only takes 10 minutes of steaming to cook. Drizzle some hot oil mixed with soy sauce and lots of garlic over the halibut, garnish with green onions and serve.

The steamed halibut is super moist and full of flavor. This technique is one of my favorite ways to prepare fish. And I know you’ll love it, too!

We drank Sake Mojitos and for dessert, enjoyed these delicious Chinese Almond Cookies (recipe here from Simply Recipes). Just goes to show that opening your mind to other cultures and of course, their food, is always a good time waiting to happen.

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Yield: serves 4

Steamed Halibut with Garlic Oil

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Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Additional Time 30 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

• 1-pound boneless skinless halibut
• 2 green onions
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 TBS vegetable oil
• 3 TBS soy sauce
• 1 TBS grated ginger
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Rinse halibut filets and pat dry with paper towels.
2. In a small bowl combine ginger, salt, pepper and sesame oil.
3. Place fish in a shallow container and pour marinade over it and evenly coat.
4. Cover fish and marinate for 30 minutes or longer in the refrigerator.
5. Coat fish with cornstarch.
6. Cut green onions into 2-inch pieces then cut into thin strips. Soak in a bowl of ice water for at least 10 minutes. They will curl in the ice water. Reserve for garnish.
7. Place fish filets on a heat proof plate and place on a steamer rack. Bamboo steamers would great for this.
8. Cover and steam fish over boiling water until done. Fish meat will flake, about 10 minutes.
9. In a small saucepan over medium heat add vegetable oil and minced garlic.
10. Gently cook garlic until just golden - do not burn or you will have to start again!
11. Pour garlic oil over fish and drizzle with soy sauce.
12. Garnish with reserved green onions and serve immediately.

Notes

Serve with white rice, brown rice or steamed vegetables. Also great with salmon sea bass.