Baked Fish with Black Bean Sauce

I have tried this baked fish recipe several times ever since I got the hang out of it. One day, I decided to get creative (again?) and merge some essence of "Chinese"into it. Well, sometimes when you get too busy with work, you need to think of new ways of doing things. And being scientifically trained in the past, efficiency always comes to mind.

It is definitely not the most traditional way of cooking this dish - Fish with Black Bean Sauce - 鼓汁鲜鱼, but it may be a good easy way to round up your long working day with something nutritious and tasty for dinner.

If I prepare the black bean sauce (with all the cutting and frying) on a Saturday/Sunday, what I only need to do on a working Monday is just to thaw my fish fillet in the morning before I head off to work, and in the evening - remove the thawed fish from the fridge, score the fish, lay it on a foil, pour the sauce (already prepared in advance) over the fish, wrap it up and send it to the oven. And it makes my black bean fish recipe original, isn't it ? ;p

Baked Fish with Black Bean Sauce
Ingredients: 1 snapper fillet, score and season with some salt and pepper

Sauce:
1tsp black bean paste (I use Woh Hup brand bottled paste), 1tsp garlic minced, half knob ginger thinly sliced, sliced green onion, cooking wine, drizzle sesame oil

Directions:
1. In a lightly oiled sauce pan, fry the minced garlic, minced ginger,green onion till fragrant. Make sure the garlic is not burnt or it will turn bitter
2. Add in black bean sauce and fry quickly. Mix well with garlic, ginger and green onion
3. Add 1-2tbsp water to dilute the mixture. Heat to simmer
4. When ready, drizzle some cooking wine along the pan edge, then add few drops of sesame oil
5. If preparing this sauce in advance, store in air-tight container and put in the fridge when sauce is cooled down.
6. When ready to "cook" the actual dish, pour the sauce mixture over the thawed fish and bake 200deg C for 8-10 minutes (Note: I followed Jamie Oliver's rule of thumb ~ 8 minutes for a pound of fish)

Did you realize? No turning on of stove and washing of pan on a work day! You just leave all the sweat to a weekend and enjoy a fuss-free homemade dinner on a weekday. Errrr...of course, you still need to cook the rice ^0^..and there is a rice cooker to help you.

I''m submitting this recipe to Original Recipes Monthly, so that worker bees like yourself can use similar "concept" and whip up a nice and simple dish for dinner.

Tag: baked fish, black bean sauce,seafood