Steamed Trout with Ginger & Spring Onion

📝 Ingredients

• 2 skin-on trout fillets (about 150 g each)
• 150 g jasmine rice + 225 ml cold water
• 250 g frozen green beans
• 30 g fresh ginger (10 g sliced for cooking, 20 g in julienne for finishing)
• 3 spring onions (the whites for cooking, the greens for finishing)
• 2 tbsp soy sauce + 2 tbsp hot water
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 2 tbsp groundnut oil
• Salt, white pepper

🍴 Utensils

• Steamer (or large sauté pan with a lid and a rack)
• Heatproof shallow bowl
• Saucepan with lid
• Small saucepan
• Chef's knife
• Chopping board

📖 Steps

1. Rinse the rice under cold water until the water running off is almost clear. Put it in the pan with the 225 ml water and a pinch of salt, bring to the boil, then cover and cook for 12 min over a very low heat. Leave to stand for 10 min off the heat without lifting the lid.
2. Peel the ginger by scraping off the skin with a teaspoon. Cut 10 g into thin slices, then cut the rest into very fine julienne. Cut the spring onion whites into 3 cm lengths and slice the greens into fine strands.
3. Mix the soy sauce, hot water and sugar in a bowl until the sugar dissolves. Pat the trout fillets dry with kitchen paper and season lightly with pepper, but no salt: the soy sauce is enough.
4. Bring 3 cm of water to the boil in the steamer. Steam the green beans for 10 min, until tender but still bright green. Season with salt, then keep warm in a covered dish.
5. Spread the ginger slices and spring onion whites in the shallow bowl and lay the fillets on top, skin side down. Place the bowl in the steamer, cover and cook for 8 min over a high heat, until the flesh is opaque and flakes apart.
6. Lift out the bowl with oven gloves, as the steam can burn. Carefully pour off the cloudy liquid that has collected at the bottom, holding back the fillets with a spatula: it tastes too fishy. Then pour the sweetened soy sauce around the fillets.
7. Arrange the ginger julienne and spring onion greens in a small pile on each fillet. Heat the oil in the small pan over a high heat for 1 to 2 min, until it shimmers and a strand of spring onion sizzles instantly when dropped in.
8. Immediately pour the smoking hot oil over the aromatics: they should crackle and release all their fragrance. Watch out for spatters and keep your face away. Serve at once with the rice and green beans, spooning over the sauce.