Raise the Roof Tilapia

Last night I decided I wanted to try my hand at some west African cooking. I happen to love a dish from Senegal called ceebu jen. My ceebu jen turned out delicious but not quite the way it was supposed to turn out. Practice will make perfect with this dish. Although the total cost of the dish was more than is allowable for recipes on the Fairy Chef, I realized that the preparation for the fish not only was delicious but also very affordable and will add a zing to your fish repertoire.

So break out your food processor/blender and let's make some fish.

Raise the Roof Tilapia

2 pieces fresh tilapia
1 can tomato paste
2 medium sized red onions
1 bunch parsley
4 garlic cloves
1 serrano chili pepper
1 sweet red bell pepper
1 habanero pepper
4-6 red potatoes
2 cups medium grain rice
6 cups cabbage chopped
3 tbs olive or peanut oil
garlic/pepper sauce
salt

Please note you can use any type of hardy fish for this dish...halibut, catfish, tilapia, shark, swordfish, tuna, whatevs.


So, first you need to prepare the roof. Please note, I did not "invent" this. I created a variation of this Senegalese seasoning mixture based on what was available at my local super market.

Mince one of your red onions, the parsley, garlic, bell pepper, and serrano chili. Put in food process and puree. Set this aside.

Cut three grooves the length of each piece of tilapia without slicing all the way through the fish. Then, with a tablespoon, using the edge, pry apart the grooves...fill each groove with the roof. Set this aside.

Mince your second red onion.

In a large pot...heat peanut oil if you have it, otherwise use olive oil. Add the second red onion and sizzle for about 3 minutes. Add to this the fish. Cook for roughly 2 minutes on each side. Then remove from heat and set aside.

To the pot with the oil and onions, add the tomato paste and two tomato paste cans full of water. Bring to a boil. Add the potatoes to the mixture. Take a fork and poke holes in the habanero pepper. Remove the stem from the pepper, and add the pepper to the potatoes. Cover about half way with water. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

While the potatoes are cooking, measure out your rice into a large bowl and soak in water for about 2 minutes. Drain the water. Reach into the bowl and mash the rice with your hands. You want to break up most of the grains. Then, just before the potatoes are finished, take another pot, and cook your rice. For 2 cups of rice, you should use four cups of water. Follow the directions on the rice bag for making the rice.

After thirty minutes, add the cabbage to the top of the pot and lay the fish on top of the cabbage. Add a cup more water and simmer for another 20 minutes or until the cabbage and fish are cooked.

Remove the habanero pepper from the pot. Serve the fish, potatoes, cabbage, and tomato base over the rice! If you have some of the garlic pepper sauce handy that I mentioned in previous recipes, serve on the side to spice up the dish. Salt to taste. Enjoy...traditional ceebu jen is served nuclear spicy..this recipe kept the heat low enough that David didn't make the crazy sucking sounds with his lips that drives me completely nutty.

Depending on the price of fish where you happen to be, this dish should run you roughly $9-$12 and will feed 6 people easily.

Pollo con Salsa de Vino Blanco (Chicken with White Wine Sauce)

So, the best thing to go with good food is good friends and family. Last night, I was in charge of making the main meat dish, as my dear David is a pescatarian. If it walked on land...he ain't eatin' it.

So, since Karlo was bringing Puerto Rican beans for dinner, I decided, with his consultation, to make chicken.

It was friggin' divine. This chicken was so moist, so flavorful, and so easy to make it was rather sinful. I had the leftovers for lunch today, and it was still moist...and so good it made me a little moist. This one takes a little bit longer to make, as the chicken needs to marinate for a spell, but it is worth the wait.

Please note, in the recipe I advocate buying chicken breasts with the skin on. It takes moments to pull the skin off, and it literally saves $2 a pound in unit price if you buy it with the skin and pull the skin yourself.

Pollo con Salsa de Vino Blanco
2 Large Split Chicken Breasts with Skin On
1/2 cup butter/margarine/butter substitute
3 cups white wine
1 tbsp garlic powder
1/3 cup scallions diced
1 large red bell pepper diced
2 tbs olive oil

First, de-skin your chicken breasts. Lay them in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, heat your butter in the microwave for 20-30 seconds...just until it melts. Pour the butter over the chicken breasts. Then, add the white wine to the bowl. Sprinkle the garlic salt on top of the breasts. Swirl the marinade around in the bowl until the chicken has been covered with a layer of marinade. Cover the bowl with tin foil and leave to sit out on the counter for 1.5 to 2 hours.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add to it the diced scallions. Mix the scallions around in the olive oil and allow to sizzle for about 2 minutes. To that add your chicken breasts including the marinade. Add the chicken to the pan and pour the marinade over top. Let cook for 3 to 4 minutes uncovered, then, place a cover over the pan keeping the heat at medium. Every 5 to 7 minutes, remove the cover from the pan, and turn the chicken. You want to cook the chicken slowly so that it retains its moisture. About 15 minutes in, cut each chicken breast in half. This will allow the chicken to cook faster and ensures that the chicken cooks all the way through. Turn again after 5 to 7 minutes. Keep covered. After about 35 minutes, add the sweet red bell pepper to the pan. Keep the chicken uncovered and cook for another five minutes. Remove from the heat and serve! Salt to taste.

Let me tell you, if you get you a bottle of 3 buck chuck from Trader Joe's this recipe is going to be cheap as hell. Chicken breasts are pricey but the benefit to your health is better than doing this with dark meat, though you most certainly could. The price, depending on the type of wine you use, should run you $11-$16 and will easily feed four people.

PS The picture here is also credited to Karlo Colon!

David's Pico de Gallo

David and I are blessed with some very wonderful friends. Last night, we had three of them over for dinner: Yuval Sheer, Adi Marom, and Karlo Colon.

Yuval and Adi are our favorite couple...two Israeli's with big hearts. Yuval is a politically aware and plugged in Israeli lawyer. He fights for justice at here, and has dreams of going back to Israel and becoming engaged in politics back home. Both he and Adi understand the deeply complex relationship between Israel and Palestine, and they both abhor the violence and hurt that the colonization of Palestine has created. Adi is a tremendous artist. A graduate student at NYU, her work combines the very real and the whimsical. I particularly am a fan of her kinetic sculptures that combine art and robotics.

Karlo Colon is an extremely talented "painter of faces," aka a make up artist. He has worked with some of the top celebs and top fashion houses on the planet, yet he is so down to earth and sweet and real and wonderful. He is David's and my first friend that we made together. I met Karlo one evening at the Hispanic AIDS Forum's Sol Awards, and it was the greatest gift I received that evening.

So, last night, we decided to have these three fantastic individuals over for dinner. David'd made veggie tacos for the non-meat eaters. Karlo brought veggie Puerto Rican beans, which we served with brown rice. We had freshly made pico de gallo and tortilla chips for appetizer, and I also made a delicious chicken to go with the rice and beans for Karlo and I. And for a green, we had fresh green beans sauteed with butter and garlic.

This week, I am going to post the recipes for the pico de gallo, as an easy cheap appetizer that is full of fresh goodness, and I will also include the chicken recipe...which will have you lickin' your fingers and drunk on the flavors.

Here, first, is the Pico de Gallo recipe.

David's Pico de Gallo

8-10 ripe plum tomatoes diced
5-6 cloves of garlic minced
3-4 large jalapenos minced
1/2 cup cilantro minced
1/2 medium sized red onion minced
1 lime
salt to taste

Pico de Gallo is quick, delicious, and highly healthy. In a large bowl add the diced tomatoes along with the garlic, jalapenos, cilantro, and onion. Cut the lime in half, and squeeze each half over the pico, with a large spoon gently stir the pico de gallo together...be careful not to mash the tomatoes over much...this is not a pureed salsa. After mixing, salt to taste. Serve with tortilla chips or, if you like Yuval, grab a bowl, a fork, and eat it as a side salad.

The pico makes a delicious fresh and light appetizer that is way low in calories, and you control the saltiness of it. The whole shebang, minus the cost of the chips, will run you about $3-$4, and it heartily fed five people to their fill.

PS The great picture on this recipe page is courtesy of the incomparable Karlo Colon.

Things Every Cook Should Have In the Kitchen

Hey friends, so there are so very indispensable, cheap items, that every cook should have lurking about in the kitchen. These are the flavors and savory items that you can use to spice up, mellow out, or livin' up the plainest of fare. Here are a few things that I am almost never ever without in my kitchen, and these are often basic ingredients that I include in my recipes.

Soy Sauce (if you have issues with high blood pressure, grab the low sodium bottle)

Red Onions (my favorite)

Potatoes (Russett or Red)

Garlic/Pepper Paste (with the rooster on it in the asian food aisle in your grocery store)

Lemons/Limes

Fish Sauce

Cilantro (the fresh stuff)

Garlic (never can have enough cloves of garlic)

Olive Oil and/or Canola Oil

Salt

Pepper

Crush Red Pepper

Pasta (I happen to like cappellini but keep a package of the kind of noodles you like about the house)

Brown Jasmine Rice

Brown Rice

White Jasmine Rice (only for those evenings when you want to eat and don't want to wait 45 minutes for brown rice to cook)

Flour

Cornmeal

Curry Powder

Goya Sazon Packets con Azafran (saffron)

Raw Sugar

Chicken Broth or boullion


If you have these things on hand...a quick trip to the grocery store for some fresh greens or a cheap piece of meat will be all that you need to throw together most recipes you find in this blog.

Stay tuned for your new recipe from the Fairy Chef...it should be up in the next day or so.

The Main Course: Tilapia with Mango/Mushroom/Jalapeno Chutney

So for the main course at the dinner party, I crossed my fingers and hoped that the concoction I had in my head would taste good on a plate. In general, when I experiment in the kitchen it works out, but now and again, every once in a while, something goes terribly terribly terribly wrong. What sounds good in theory tastes like horse ass sweat once it is served up. I usually save those types of experiments for when I am alone and can hide my shame, but this time I was going to serve the product to people I care about...and I was dearly hoping that the entire party didn't end up in the bathroom taking turns projectile into whatever available porcelain object was available.

It turned out my fears were unfounded.

The foodies loved my sauce and even said they were willing to bear witness to their adoration of it. So here, for your taste bud's pleasure, is the recipe.

Tilapia with Mango Mushroom Chutney

2 large pieces of tilapia
½ container button mushrooms
4 cloves garlic minced
1/8 cup red onion
¼ cup cilantro
1 large jalapeno diced
1 large mango
¼ cup olive oil

To begin, you will need to make your chutney. First, slice the button mushrooms thinly. In a small saucepan, saute the mushrooms, onions, and garlic until the mushrooms are cooked. Set aside.

Next add the sauteed mushrooms, mango (sliced into pieces), jalapeno and cilantro into a blender or food processer. Puree the heck out of it, and set aside.

Slice the tilapia pieces in half length wise. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Once the oil is hot, add to it the tilapia. Pour the chutney over the fish. Make sure each piece is covered thoroughly. Cook the fish for seven or eight minutes and then flip over. Cook for another 5 or 6 minutes. Remove from heat.

Lemme tell you...the combination of the sweetness of the mango with the mellow woody flavor of the mushrooms and the minor kick of the jalapenos will do your body good.

Serve the fish with brown jasmine rice and enjoy. This recipe will comfortably feed four people. You can find very affordable and cheap frozen tilapia at Trader Joe's....this delicious dish will run you about $8.

Tostones with Guacamole and Salmon

This week I had my first Fairy Chef dinner party. Sounds fancy don't it? Actually, it was just me, David, Tasha, and Nat drinking some vino while I plied them with my new creations. Now, Tasha and Nat are real foodies. When they talk about food, they sound like that crazy opera singer judge from the original Iron Chef that was obviously dubbed over by a cheerleader using her best porn voice, but she knows a thing or two about how food should be experienced.

So I started off the evening with an appetizer. Tostones (fried green plantains) served with fresh guacamole, and diced salmon. Now, here is what you are going to get from the Fairy Chef....honesty. At first, I wasn't particularly wowed by the combination. The flavors worked together but something wasn't quite right, but thanks to Nat I figured it out. I hadn't cooked most of the tostones long enough. The minute I had a toston that was crispy (I usually fry them twice but only fried them once this time), the combination of the texture of the tostone with the fresh guac and the salmon was D-I-V-I-N-E.

PS Eating guacamole with homemade tostones is WAY healthier than guac and chips!

Then we moved on to the main course. The main course was a pan fried tilapia, which I sauteed in a delicious mango/jalapeno/mushroom chutney. The chutney on the fish was so good that I thought we all might break out into a Bollywood moment and starting dancing and singing Tilapia to the tune of Jai Ho.

In the end, the dinner was a success. As I experiment further with the appetizer, I will update the recipe. But, here are this weeks recipes. I am breaking the recipes into two posts for easy searching.


Tostones con Guacamole y Salmon

3-4 green plantains
2 small salmon fillets
4-6 avocados
½ small red onion
1 jalapeno
2 limes
1/3 cup cilantro
6 cloves of garlic minced
2 plum tomatoes
1 cup canola oil
½ cup soy sauce
2 brown paper bags
¼ cup garlic salt

This is is a three part recipe...it is actually three recipes in one. I am magic. Ta-da! So, begin by pre-heating your oven to 350 degrees. Place the two salmon fillets on a deep baking sheet (I use a small glass square baking pan), pour the soy sauce over the salmon, and then cover the baking pan with tin foil. Place the pan into the oven. It is going to take about 30-40 minutes for the salmon to bake. Check after 20 minutes and make sure it is cooking evenly. You don't need to flip the salmon over unless they are very thick fillets, if so, flip them at the 20 minute mark.

Now, while the salmon is baking away, you can begin preparing your guacamole.

Guacamole

Now it's been said that my guac may be the best guacamole in the world. Perhaps even the entire Milky Way. I hear that the Mexicans of the Andromeda Galaxy may have a better recipe, but I doubt it.

First mince your garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, red onion, and tomatoes. Put them all in a large mixing bowl. Take your avocados and halve them. Remove the giant pit. Now here is the fun part. Take each half and squeeze the ripe avocado out of its skin into the bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Next, grab the two limes and cut those in half. Squeeze the lime into the bowl. Make sure to dig your fingers into the meat of the lime to make sure you get the most juice out of each half. And next, the messy part......if you really want your guac to be well mixed...wash your hands...and then dig into the bowl. Squeeze the avocado and mix the ingredients by hand...squashing and squishing as you go. Once the guac is well mixed, add about a full teaspoon of salt, and then set aside.

If the salmon is finished cooking, remove from the oven, and set on a cutting board. Most salmon fillets come with a piece of skin on the underside of the fillet. After baking, this should be easy to peel off. Remove the skin and discard. Then, mince the salmon until it is in pieces that resemble canned salmon (yuck!). Place the salmon into a small serving bowl and set aside.

Now, making tostones is an art form. If you have had good tostones, you know what I am talking about. First lay out one brown paper bag on the counter. Set the second aside, nearby. Next peel your plantains. The skin on a plantain is much thicker than a banana, and it is attached tightly to the fruit. You will need to use a large knife to make a slit down the length of the plantain. Once they are peeled, you want to cut it into pieces about the size and thickness of a quarter, more or less. Next, in a large skillet heat your canola oil. Once it is sizzling hot, add the plantains to the oil. Fry the plantains until they start to brown, flip them over and brown the other side. This will take about 5-6 minutes. Remove the plantains from the skillet and lay them out on the brown paper bag. While they are still hot, lay the second brown paper bag on top of them. If you have a rolling pin, roll over the plantains to squish them flat. If you don't have a rolling pin (lord knows I don't) a spaghetti sauce jar or a thermos will work just as well. Once you have squished the plantains flat, put them back into the skillet and fry them up for another two minutes on each`side. Remove from the heat and sprinkle with garlic salt.

Here is the tasty part. To serve, lay a heap of tostones on small plates, cover with scoops of guacamole, and then sprinkle the top with the baked salmon. Sprinkle each plate with a little salt and serve.

This recipe will happily serve four people, and it costs about $10. If you choose to make the recipe without the salmon, the entire cost of the appetizer is about $4.

Summer Pasta

So, this evening, I decided I wanted to make something light and tasty for dinner. I still had some leftover fresh veggies, it was too hot to have soup for dinner, and I thought a break from brown rice would do us good.

So here is what I concocted in the kitchen. Note, I was in the store and I found some new egg noodles that I hadn't encountered before. They are egg noodles made with just egg whites. While they are much lower in cholesterol and also are 99% fat free, they are also 102% less tasty than regular egg noodles. Since I believe in eating foods in moderation and certain foods, such as pasta, no more than once a week, I think you will be fine with regular egg noodles (which are also three times cheaper). If, though, you have to watch your cholesterol or your fat intake, the egg white only egg noodles will probably have a better taste than the blended whole wheat egg noodles that I also saw on the shelf today.

PS I made this dish with and without chicken. For a veggie version simply leave the chicken out.

Summer Pasta

1 lb egg noodles
1 large red bell pepper
1/2 cup fresh basil minced
1 shallot minced
4 garlic cloves minced
1/2 lb button mushrooms
1/3 cup cilantro
1 jalapeno
1/3 cup olive oil
7-8 plum tomatoes
4-6 cups fresh spinach minced
2 large boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1 tsp crushed red pepper
Parmesan cheese

First boil your noodles until they are al dente. Drain the noodles and run cold water over them to keep them from sticking. Set aside.

Make sure that all of your veggies are minced, chopped, etc, and set aside.

If you are making this dish with chicken, slice the breasts into medium size chunks. In a large skillet, heat the oil and add the jalapeno, garlic, and shallots. Add the chicken and cook for 7-8 minutes over high heat until they are mostly but not fully cooked. Reduce the heat to medium. Add to the pan all remaining ingredients save the parmesan cheese. Also, at this time, add the noodles. Stir the pasta, chicken and veggies together for another seven or eight minutes, until the chicken is thoroughly cooked.

Serve and enjoy.

If you are making the meatless version...heat the oil and add all of the ingredients to the pot at once. Cook until the mushrooms are ready to eat, and then serve it up.

This dish is light and refreshing, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. It also, without the chicken, will cost roughly $4-$6 and will easily feed four people a couple of helpings. With the chicken, the price is $10-$12, and, again, will easily feed four people.

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If you enjoy the recipes that you find here, and you want to keep up with once a week notification to changes on the blog, upcoming dinner parties---where you can sample the Fairy Chef's fare, or you just want to let the world know you are a groupie of good, healthy, low cost, and delicious food for workin' folks...then click this link and sign up here:

http://www.facebook.com/brandonlacycampos?success=1#/group.php?gid=120272012224&ref=ts

I look forward to providing you with great recipes to feed your mind, body and spirit. I also love getting suggestions for new foods, requests for specific recipes, or feedback on the recipes that I have posted. Please note, I have made and enjoyed all of these dishes right here in my own kitchen, but though I am the Fairy Chef, I am not REALLY a chef...just a queer in the kitchen playin' with everyday products and produce trying to make sure the people I love have good lovin' in their bellies. All that is to say...I am MOST interested in providing great tasting recipes as opposed to doing a Wolfgang Puck type of recipe integrity...take the recipes...make them your own...and if you discover adding a bit of this or taking away a bit of that makes the dish even more delish...please please please make a comment here or send me an email to brandonlacycampos@yahoo.com.

You can also follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/brandonlacycamp

Much love to you all!

Caribbean/Asian Fusion Shrimp Stir Fry with Fried Mushroom Appetizers

So, last night, David and I stayed in and had a movie night. We finally have the apartment to ourselves as the "roommate" finally moved out a couple of days ago (for more on the "roommate" check out my post the Ex Files at My Feet Only Walk Forward). And I decided to do a little fusion experiment in the kitchen.

Our friend Karlo Karlo was a gem super star and stopped by last week with a whole mess of freshly made sofrito, I had some shrimp thawed out, and I had purchased a beautiful finger pepper from the Amish Market near our apartment. I decided to build a recipe around these three items. I also had a package of button mushrooms, and since we were having a special night in, and both David and I were starving after having just come from the gym and gongyo, I thought appetizers were in order. Here is the menu from last night.

I will be uploading photos of the cooking process in a bit.

Lightly Fried Mushrooms

1 package button mushrooms
1 cup flour
1 egg
1 tablespooon seasoning salt
1 tsp black pepper
two cups vegetable oil


In a medium size mixing bowl, mix flour, seasoning salt, and pepper. Set aside. In a separate small bowl, crack the egg, and mix it together so that the yolk and egg whites mix up.

Over a medium-high heat in a medium size sauce pan, heat your vegetable oil. After cleaning the mushrooms to make sure that all the dirty is off of them, roll each mushroom in the egg and then roll in the flour so that the mushroom is covered in a light layer of batter. Then drop the mushrooms into the oil. Fry the mushrooms for about seven or eight minutes. The crust should turn a golden brown and be very light and flaky. Make sure to move the mushrooms around while they sizzle.

Remove from the pan and lay on a plate covered with a paper towel to soak up some of the extra oil. Sprinkle with salt and enjoy.

This tasty little treat feeds two people with about four to six mushrooms each and will cost you $2 to $3.

And now on to the main event.

Fusion Shrimp Stir Fry

1 lb frozen or fresh uncooked shrimp
1 finger pepper
1/8 cup shredded fresh ginger
4 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup sofrito
1 tbs garlic pepper sauce (optional)
1/2 soy sauce
20-30 pieces of okra chopped up
1 large sweet red bell pepper
6 scallions
1/4 cup Goya olives with capers
1 cup white wine (cooking wine or Sauvignon Blanc)
1/4 cup olive oil

So, first things first, make sure that you thaw out the shrimp (once again, Trader Joe's has GREAT large frozen shrimp, pre cleaned with only the tails on). Remove the tails from the shrimp. They should just pull right off. Set the shrimp aside.

Mince your garlic and the finger pepper. If you have a cheese shredder, use that to shred the ginger. And then chop up your scallions. Make sure you chop up a part of the darker green leafy section of the scallions as well.

Also, make sure your okra and sweet red bell pepper are chopped into bite sized pieces and set aside.


In a large wok, heat up your olive oil. Once the oil is nice and toasty, add in the ginger, garlic,scallions and finger pepper. Let these sizzle and pop for about four or five minutes. This allows the flavors to mix with the oil. It also allows the garlic to carmelize, which brings out a fuller flavor.

Add to the wok your shrimp, soy sauce, garlic pepper sauce, and olives with capers. You can find the garlic pepper sauce in most grocery stores these days in the Asian section. It's a clear bottle with a rooster on it and a green cap. It's great stuff. Also, in that same section, you can find the Goya Olives with Capers. Be careful, the olives still have pits, but they have a great flavor. Then add your sofrito. You can buy sofrito from the store, but I do not recommend it. It isn't difficult to make, and you can freeze it. There are many good recipes for making sofrito on the web. Make sure it is Puerto Rican sofrito with recao.

Keep the shrimp and the mixture moving in the pan to ensure that all the flavors are mixing and the shrimp are coated. After about a minute add the okra, sweet red bell pepper and the white wine. Keep stirring the food for about five to six minutes. Once the shrimp have turned pinkish/orange, cook for another minute or two, and then remove from the heat. You don't want to overcook the shrimp or they will be dry.

This stir fry makes a rich sauce that is a little thicker than other stir fries. Serve the stir fry over brown rice and enjoy. The mixture of Caribbean and Asian flavors in this dish are pretty damn stupefying. So good.

This dish will comfortable serve three to four people and will run you $9-$16. The price range spread is based on your access to large uncooked shrimp. Again, Trader Joe's is your friend.

Steamed Roughy with Ginger and Garlic

So, this week I made a couple of new dishes that I am super excited to share with all ya'll.

The other night, David and I went to gongyo at the SGI Cultural Center in New York along with my little brother Oshen and Oshen's new girlfriend (who was such a cutie patootie I just wanted to slap her on a grill and eat her right up). Afterwords, we swung by the Trader Joe's just off Union Square and stocked up on cheap fish. In general, whenever we are down that way, we pick up some frozen salmon, frozen uncooked shrimp, some scarlet snapper, and, this time, we grabbed some frozen Orange Roughy.

I have never worked with roughy before, nor had I ever steamed fish before. Whilst playing a game of Scrabble on Facebook with my Scrabble buddy Fred Chuang of Los Angeles, Fred sent me a message of a tasty way to prepare Catfish. So, I decided to apply some of what he said about the catfish to the orange roughy. And here's what I did:

Steamed Roughy with Ginger and Garlic

2 Large Pieaces Orange Roughy (frozen or fresh)
4 scallions diced
1/4 cup diced ginger root (FRESH!!!!)
1/4 soy sauce
3 cloves garlic minced


Make sure that your roughy is thawed out if you purchased it frozen. Take a large kitchen knife and make an incision down the center of each fillet. Take your ginger and garlic and fill the incisions in each piece of fish with the garlic and ginger. Lay the fish on one of those niffy vegetable steamers that fold up and look sort of like a flying saucer. Place that inside a large frying pan. Fill the bottom of the frying pan with water but not enough water that the water will cover the fish or even touch the fish. You want the fish to steam not boil. Cover the top of the fish with the scallions. Also add some of the scallions to the water in the bottom of the pan. Then pour the soy sauce over the top of the fish fillets. Place a lid over the top of the pan and turn the heat up to med high.

Let the fish steam for about 12 minutes.

Remove from the heat, the fish should be moist and flaky. Orange roughy is a very light fish, and it doesn't take long to cook.

I served the roughy with brown rice and some pan sauteed, with a little butter and garlic, fresh string beans that had been julienned by David. Super delicious!

The total cost for this dish, with the green beans, is roughly $7-$9 and comfortably feeds two. If you get large fillets you could feed four from this recipe.