Remembering Where Our Food Comes From

When we sat down to do meal planning this week, Dan wanted to do a Vietnamese fish dish, and after flipping through some books, we found a recipe in Into the Vietnamese Kitchen for a whole steamed fish, with a noodle filling that looked good. He couldn't get whole fish or the cellophane noodles we needed during his usual Saturday shopping, so we got up this morning and headed down to Uwajimaya, where we knew we could get both without problem.

We picked out our noodles, then headed over to the seafood department, looking over the variety of whole fish on ice and in the case, and didn't see anything that was the right size (we were looking for a 1.5-2 lb fish). Then we noticed the huge tilapia tank - filled with fish swimming around together, and realized that was what we needed. I thought I would handle it much better, but the initial excitement of ordering a live fish turned to a sick pit in my stomach as one was fished out and then beaten on the head repeatedly with a club to kill it before being scaled and gutted. I felt dizzy, and more than a little nauseous, but kept reminding myself out loud that every fish in the case, every fish I've ever eaten, and every animal I've ever eaten was once alive and had to be killed to become my dinner. We really do become dissociated from that fact quite easily when buying meats & seafood that's been butchered. We don't have to look our dinner in the eye and apologize.

The fish may have gotten the last laugh, though, since we had a helluva time cooking it. The recipe calls for steaming the fish whole, but my bamboo steamers and biggest pot were a little too small for that. I ended up putting a cooling rack on top of the pot, placed the fish on top of that, then covered it with two layers of aluminum roasting pans, upside down to trap in the steam & heat.

But even after cooking the fish an extra 10 minutes, when I tried to serve it the true revenge became apparent. First, only about half the fish was cooked through properly, so I had to gingerly peel back the skin and pick out what I could. And second, serving whole fish is a pain! All those bones and the gelatinous skin and a few scales that got missed make for a challenge. And when the whole head fell apart in pieces when I tried to flip the fish over, that was a shock. I've eaten fish eyes and cheeks before, but they were picked out and served to me - not falling all over the table. This might be our last foray into whole fish, because (as Dan pointed out) neither of us mind spending hours preparing a meal - in fact, we enjoy it - but we don't want to spend hours trying to serve it.

Classic Steamed Fish with Pork, Mushroom & Noodles
Filling:
2 Tbspn vegetable oil
2 Tbspn finely chopped yellow onion
1 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled & minced
1/4 lb ground pork, coarsely chopped to loosen
4 dried shiitake mushrooms, reconstituted, stemmed, and thinly sliced
2 Tbspn fish sauce
1.5 oz cellophane noodles, soaded in hot water until pliable, drained, and cut to 4-6 inch lengths
2 scallions, green part only, cut into 2 inch lengths
Black Pepper

1 whole striped bass, 1.75-2 lbs, cleaned with head & tail intact
Salt
2 scallions, white part only, cut lengthwise into thin strips
1 Roma tomato, cored, cut lengthwise into 3 wedges, and seeds removed
4-6 sprigs of cilantro

To make filling, heat oil in a 10 inch skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and ginger and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the pork and mushrooms and cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes, or until the pork is no longer pink. Remove from heat. Add the fish sauce, noodles, and scallions and stir for 1 minute, until the noodles are soft and transparent. Season to taste with pepper and set aside.

Rinse the fish well. Generously rub inside and out with salt, then rinse thoroughly under cold water. Pat the fish dry. Lay the fish flat across your work surface and with a sharp knife, score it at a 45 degree angle to the spine in 3-4 places, spacing the cuts 1 inch apart and going only about 3/4 of the way to the bone.

Set aside a few white scallion strips for garnish, and tuck the rest in the score marks. Place the fish on a heatproof plate about 1 inch smaller than the diameter of your steamer. Stuff half the filling in the fish cavity and arrange the rest over the fish. Put the tomato wedges on top and place the plate in the steamer.

Fill the steamer with water and bring to a rolling boil. Place the steamer tray on the steamer, cover and steam the fish for 18-22 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the thickest part easily pierces the flesh all the way to the bone.

When the fish is done, turn off the heat and remove the plate from the steamer. Slide the fish off the plate onto a serving platter. Garnish with scallions and cilantro, and serve.