Ginger-Soy Striped Bass with Chinese Vegetables

I went to the fish counter again the other day looking to try something new. If you haven't been following, I'm sort of new to eating and cooking fish so I was excited to try something I hadn't had before.  I told the guy at the counter what I was making and he seemed pretty sure that I should get the striped bass.  It was one of the more expensive fishes, but he convinced me, saying that it was the same exact fish that some great restaurants use for this kind of dish and that it just came in fresh.  So I pretty much instantly caved.


I usually get half of a pound for two people, but he weighed out about two thirds of a pound and then gave it to me for the price of a much less expensive fish.  I've always heard that it's good to know your fish monger, so hopefully this will be the start of a long, beautiful relationship!

This whole dish was inspired by a recipe for ginger-tamari sauce in the original Moosewood cookbook that I read while in the waiting room at the doctor.  Katzen wrote that the sauce would be good as a marinade for fish or in a veggie stir-fry, so I thought it would be great to use it for both at once.  Tamari is similar to soy sauce but it is always brewed and it is made primarily of soybeans, while soy sauce often is made of part soybean and part wheat and/or vegetable protein.  You can use either for the sauce.

So I had the ingredients for the soy-ginger sauce picked out and the striped bass in hand, and all that was left was to find some vegetables to stir-fry.  I really wanted it to have a different feel than the usual "use up the vegetables in the refrigerator" stir-fry, so I went for a variety of Asian vegetables that I don't always buy.  You can stick to this list or buy whatever looks good to you, but I really recommend using Asian style roasted chestnuts if you can find them as they really give the dish much more depth of flavor.  I found them at a gourmet grocery - they come in a resealable bag and are already roasted and ready to eat. 

Ginger-Soy Striped Bass with Chinese Vegetables
Inspired by the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen

INGREDIENTS:


For the sauce:
1 1/2 cup tamari or soy sauce
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons minced ginger, about 2 inches of ginger root*
1 cup minced scallions
2 small cloves garlic, minced
4 teaspoons sesame oil
4 teaspoons dark vinegar
4 teaspoons sugar

For the fish and vegetables:
1 pound striped bass fillets
3 heads of baby bok choy, white and green parts, chopped
1/4 of a medium sized green cabbage, thinly sliced
1 bag roasted water chestnuts, about 2 cups
1/3 cup fresh bean sprouts
A generous handful of snow or sugar snap peas

*Tip for peeling ginger: Use the side of a metal soup spoon to scrape off the skin of the ginger root.  Use the same motion and technique you would use if you were using a paring knife as a peeler.

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Whisk together all the ingredients for the marinade.  Pour slightly less than half over the fish fillets and let marinate for several hours (or as long as you are willing to wait).  Set the rest aside. 

Meanwhile, begin washing and chopping the vegetables.  Group them according to their hardness so that they can be added together at the right time.

At this point, start cooking the fish.  Whether you cook it on the stove top or in the oven, the general rule of thumb is to cook it for 10 minutes for every inch of thickness.  If your fillet tapers thinly at the tail, fold the thinnest part over itself to make it the same thickness as the rest of the fish.  You will know the fish is ready when it begins to seep out an opaque white liquid (if it has a lot then you've already over cooked it) or when it flakes apart easily with a fork.

Once the fish has started cooking, heat a small amount of canola oil in a large non-stick skillet.  Add the hardest vegetables first which in this case are the white part of the bok choy and the cabbage.  Saute over medium heat, stirring frequently until tender, about 5-8 minutes.  If vegetables begin to turn too brown add a couple tablespoons of sauce and cover the pan.  About halfway through the cooking add half of the remaining sauce.  When tender, add the green parts of the bok choy, peas, sprouts, and chestnuts.  Let cook for another minute or so.

To serve, spoon the vegetables onto a plate along with a fish fillet.  Spoon some sauce, scallions especially, over the fish.  May be served with rice.

Serves 4.

Advanced preparation:  All the vegetables can be chopped hours in advance, and the sauce can be made up to a couple of days in advance and kept in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.