steamed tiny fish with fermented black beans - 豆豉蒸乾魚仔

Some of my recent culinary interest has been recreating many Chinese dishes that involves the use of preserved ingredients. Most of these cannot be found in restaurants in the West, and even in China. It is because they are regional home cooking.

I recent came across these tiny dried fish while shopping in one of my regular Asian grocery stores. I could tell right away that they are of high quality. They were sold in bulk in this store in which the owner would import some of the difficult to find dried goods from Hong Kong or China (I know it is odd for me to separate Hong Kong from China). I bought some to try. The quality of these tiny fish can be told in the umami. Good quality ones would be very tasty while the poor quality ones would have foul smell and lack in umami. Pollution is also a high concern nowadays with buying Asian dried goods. I also do not buy items that threaten extinction of some species, or cruelty like shark fins.

 a closeup of the tiny fish

The preparation of this dish is very simple. You need to re-hydrate the fish in cold water. This is done by soaking them in water and drain the first soak to remove some dirt. How long you soak the fish in water affect the texture and mouthfeel. You also don't want to over soak them as the water will leech away the flavors. I diced the fermented black beans coarsely. The garlic is slice thin or chopped, and browned lightly in oil to extract the flavors. Seasoning including a bit of oyster sauce, soy sauce, and sugar to balance the saltiness.

fermented black beans, garlic, and some hot chili peppers goes very well with these little fish

Because I was making two steam dishes I break out my Chinese steam baskets. This allow me to steam two dishes at the same time efficiently.

you can stack many of these steam baskets on top of one another

here are a stack of two

Once the fish is steamed I add a dash of good quality sesame oil and garnish with some slice scallion. The fish should be tender but a bit al dente. If they are mushy and bland they are either poor quality or you over-soaked them.

a meal with two steamed dishes - the other dish is steamed minced pork with salted big head vegetable 大頭菜篜豬肉