Steamed River Catfish With Simply Garlic Oil

Another great fish to savor is the River Catfish aka Ikan Baung.  I steamed it with simply garlic oil and sizzled light soy sauce.  Delicious !  The meat is silky smooth and sweet . I love fish prepared with no fuss so that I get to taste the natural sweetness of the fish. Awww .... Steamed river Catfish aka Ikan Baung in our national language can be quite pricey if you order from the restuaruant menu.  I bought mine alive from the aquarium tank , sold by a fish vendor from the wet market in Canning Garden . You can pick the one you want and the man will catch it for you.  Claire a good friend of mine  recommended me this fish :)  I have been to the market so often and can you believe it ???...I walked pass the stall most Saturdays and yet can't register such a stall there :p until Claire told me about it :)

It costs me about RM12 per fish and weighs less than a kilo . The vendor will clean and gut it for me and all I have to do is take it home and steam it :)  We the chinese normally steam the fish with the head and tail intact - it is a belief that everything must have a beginning and an ending..ohhhh I think it means somthing like that..LOL ! I am not so good in chinese beliefs :p  I am truly ashamed that I do not know much of my own chinese culture and customs :(  my Piggies are worse..they can't speak proper cantonese until they went to college let alone chinese cultures.....funny though ,when they were young we spoke to them in the english language and our mother tongue..Hokkien but they chose to answer back in the english language. Joshua , my boy , told his nursery teacher that he is English ! he was 3and a half years old then...LOL!  Today...we still teased him about that.  But today , after attending college, he picked up his Mandarin and learning to write in Chinese....I am so relief when I heard him speaking mandarin with his friend over the mobile phone. 

Sorry , I digress abit ...now back to the fish . For me steaming is the best way to eat this fish , though some prefer to cook it in curry .  Steaming it with just garlic oil and sizzled soy sauce is great for this fish. The sizzled soy sauce and garlic oil truly marry well  with the fish .  Mmmmmm simply delicious ! I steam the fish for 8 minutes only to get a smooth silky texture. Over steaming fish will give you a  coarse and hard texture :)

this size of fish will fit into my pyrex pie dish and

just nice for the two of us..

I added in some cut chillies to spice up the aromatic sauce

it may not look beautiful..
but the meat is lovely...
silky smooth and sweet

river catfish is a favourite orders

in chinese restaurant

Enjoy and have a great weekend !

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