steamed sea bream fillet with cloud fungus & sliced shitake

i did steamed sea bream fillet with cloud fungus & sliced shitakefor teban gardens community breakfast this morning on 7.4.2017. ^^

this my 32nd friday breakfast community meal at teban gardens community service centre.

i first started doing a community meal dish for teban gardens CSC on 8.1.2016.

the centre was started in 2002 after much effort & challenge by our RI friend who is a pastor of pasir panjang hill brethren church (pphbc) which owns & runs the CSC.

steamed sea bream fillet with cloud fungus & sliced shitake

it’s been a while.

the last time I did Friday breakfast for teban gardens was 4 weeks ago on 10.3.2017.

the last 3.5 weeks I was indisposed, actually had to do a check-up at the hospital. the last 2 days I felt I was returning to 100%.

sea bream fillet

I bought 2 large angkorli, or sea bream at sheng shiong. there was a promotion just S$6.60/kg, that would be >33% off normal price. so I paid just S$19+ for 2.9kg of fish!

I asked  the server to fillet the fish, but to keep one head for a fish head dish (which means they only fillet 1/2 of that fish & kept 1/2 with the head).

sea bream fillet

so I estimated I had 1.8kg of fillet out of the 2.9kg.

there are >100 residents at teban gardens Friday breakfast these days. one staff told me this morning they had 119pax last week (I was not around).

sea bream fillet

anyway 1.8kg of fillet should be sufficient, though I have not tried steaming this quantity of fish before.

I washed with salt the evening before, cleaned & placed on a colander in the fridge overnight.

cloud fungus

I also had some cloud fungus, which I soaked in water & cut smaller pieces using kitchen sears.

steamed sea bream fillet with cloud fungus & sliced shitake

this morning, I got up early to prepare the fish.

steamed sea bream fillet with cloud fungus & sliced shitake

for the condiments, I added 3tbsp of light soy sauce, olive oil & mirin. usually I cook a whole 800g fish I add about 2tbsp each. today the angkorli was filleted & I made deep cuts so the fish was soaked in the condiments. I thought I kept it at 3tbsp. (after steaming, I tasted & decided to add 1 more tbsp. of light soy sauce to bring out the flavours!)

steamed sea bream fillet with cloud fungus & sliced shitake

I also added 1 cut chilli padi, 3cm sliced ginger, a portion of leek sliced thinly, some cut scallions (the white part), the cloud fungus, and then added 1/2 packet of sliced shitake (about 100g).

steamed sea bream fillet with cloud fungus & sliced shitake

next, was just to prepare the steam oven.

I set it to 16mins. it’s kind of try & error!

steamed sea bream fillet with cloud fungus & sliced shitake

any how I got it right first time.

16mins delivered the perfect texture-cooked through, firm & not mushy, just right actually.

fish & sauce were delicious. I decided to add 1 more tbsp. light soy sauce to bring out the flavours more.

steamed sea bream fillet with cloud fungus & sliced shitake

then I transferred the fish & all the ingredients to the aluminium container/carrier & sealed with another aluminium foil as the cover.

I derived great pleasure cooking for the teban gardens folk. today the fish very nice, and one of the volunteers tried & commented it was very good.

c.h.e.f andy