I am a fish lover and like all kinds of fish dishes. The recipe I am going to introduce to you is probably one of my favorite Chinese food recipes. It is simple, quick and tasty. The best part is that you can have the amazing food all accomplished in the matter of five minutes in microwave, no steamer required! Firstly, let’s look at what you will need:

1. You need some fish, of course. It does not matter what kind of fish you are going to use. Cod, catfish, halibut, and even salmon are perfect choices. Chinese people like to use whole fish. But you don’t have to. However, I would recommend NOT getting fillet. The better choice would be fish steaks due to its thickness.
2. Green onions. You need about two green onions and cut them into green onion silks.
3. Light soy sauce. There are two different kinds of soy sauce. One is dark soy sauce, and the other is the light one. Please make sure you get the light soy sauce. Otherwise, you will have a very very heavy colored fish without much flavor in the end. I recommend the Maggi’s which I think is the best one to use for any seafood plate. If you cannot find Maggi’s in the stores you shop, don’t worry, you will be completely fine as long as you are using the light soy sauce instead of the dark one.
4. Last, not the least, cooking oil and the microwave.

Let’s start cooking. Firstly, you need to clean up the fish by just washing it under running water for a bit. Then place the fish steaks in the plate, cover them with another bowl or plate or anything you can find to cover it in the microwave. This is an important step. Do not put the fish in the microwave without cover as it will let the moisture escape and leave you a very dry fish in the end.

Now, turn the microwave on for about five minutes at the high level. You can turn the fish once when it is half way through. After it is done, remove the plate from the microwave. You may find some water in the dish. Do not worry. It is normal. Just get rid of the water. Remember that we have some green onions silk prepared to use? It is the time to put them evenly on the fish.

The next thing we want to do is to heat up some cooking oil. Turn on the stove, pour some cooking oil into it (probably about 5-10 table spoons depending on the amount of fish you are having) and heat it up until you see a slight smoke coming out of it. Pour the heated cooking oil directly and evenly onto the fish. You will hear some nice sizzling.

The last step is to add the light soy sauce. Just pour the light soy sauce equally onto the fish and…..you are done! Try this great Chinese food recipe. You will be glad you did. I have recommend this to many of my friends and can guarantee that you will have a restaurant like steam fish. Let me know if you have any question by leaving me a comment. I will try all my best to answer it.

Steam rice or white rice has played a very important role in Chinese cuisine. Just like French fries, it is the main meal for Chinese people especially in the south part of China. How do you cook the perfect steam rice? Is your steam rice too hard or too soft and soggy? I have seen so many people cook the steam rice in the wrong way. Usually, what they will do is to boil the water first, put the rice in, boil both of them again, dump the water and then scoop the rice. This is so wrong. Therefore, before we get into all kinds of different tasty Chinese food recipes, first thing first, let’s go back to the basic and check out how to make the perfect and restaurant grade steam rice.

The easiest way to cook the steam rice is to do it with a rice cooker. But it does not stop there. There are several techniques to make it perfect. So, here is what you need: rice cooker, rice, water and maybe some vinegar.

The first step is to rinse the rice completely with a big amount of water. Stir the rice with water quickly, rub the rice with your palm with a little bit pressure and immediately discard the water afterwards. Repeat this process for no more than three times. If you do it for more than three times, there is a chance of lost of nutrition in it.

Now, the rice has been cleaned. It is the time to add water again for cooking. You need to pay attention to the amount of the water added since it will determine the softness of rice. You do not want to add too much to make it soggy or too little to make it too hard. The correct rice-to-water ratio is 1:1.2. So if you have two cups of rice, it is about right to add three cups of water. After adding the water, please do not start cooking it immediately. You need wait for half an hour to allow the water being absorbed. After sitting the rice for at least 30 mins, you can now plug in the rice cooker and start cooking.

It will probably take about 15 to 20 minutes for the rice cooker to switch from cooking to warming. As soon as you see it switching, please unplug it. Please do not lift the cover of rice cooker right away! This is very important, just like you do not want to cut into the steak right after it is off the grill. You need to let the rice sit with the cover on for about 10-15 minutes. After sitting, you can lift the cover and scoop out your perfect rice.

Oh, did we say about the vinegar? Yes, I have not forgotten about it. During summer time, it is an option to add some vinegar (about 1ml) to the rice during cooking. In this way, you will be able to store it for a much longer time.

So do you have any question? Please feel free to leave me a comment. Stay tuned for more great Chinese food recipes. Happy cooking everyone!