Fried Halibut with Ginger, Spring Onion and Soy Sauce

This recipe works for most types of firm fish - halibut, hake and monkfish fillets or steaks, whole fish such as bream and bass, and oily fish such as salmon. I haven't managed a great photo, and made a couple of errors tonight. One thing I discovered was the massive difference it makes if you're using standard light soy sauce - as a preference I would use a soy sauce labelled "for seafood" (e.g. Lee Kum Kee), which is sweeter, and milder. Failing that, perhaps a Japanese soy sauce such as Kikkoman. If you only have light soy sauce though, just taste it and make sure it's not too salty.

LKK Seasoned Soy Sauce for Seafood

Ingredients

• One or two firm white fish fillets or steaks (I used halibut)
• Spring onions, chopped finely (green and white parts)
• 4-6 slices of raw, peeled ginger, bashed with the flat of a cleaver
• Ground white pepper
• Seasoned soy sauce for seafood
• Sunflower or vegetable oil
• (Optional) Cornflour for dusting
• (Optional) Few drops of sesame oil

Instuctions

• Dry the halibut fillets on kitchen towels
• (Optional) Season some cornflour with ground white pepper on a dish, pat the fillets in to coat lightly, and pat off any excess cornflour. Set to one side
• Heat a couple of spoonfuls of sunflower oil in a large, non-stick frying pan. When the oil is hot, add the ginger and stir round to flavour the oil
• Add the halibut to the pan, and let cook for 3-4 minutes, depending on the thickness of the steak. Don't disturb the steak too much in the pan, to allow the surface to crisp up nicely. Remove the ginger if it starts to burn
• Flip the fillet over, lower the heat setting and cook for a further 3-4 minutes on the other side. When the fillet is cooked, remove from the pan and place on a warmed dish
• Discard any remaining ginger, give the pan a wipe and place back on the heat. You don't need a lot of oil at this stage, but add a few drops if you like
• Add the spring onions to the pan and stir round quickly to soften, taking care not to burn
• Add the soy sauce and a little water to the pan, and let boil. Add some ground white pepper and adjust water/pepper/soy levels to your taste
• (Optional). Remove from the heat and add a couple of drops of sesame oil
• Pour over the fish and serve

We had this with boiled rice, corn on the cob, stir-fried beansprouts and yesterday's leftover chicken. All three children love any fish and ask for ladle-fuls of sauce with their rice. The toddler had had a mammoth 3 hour nap, so ran around for most of dinner, but came to me periodically to have chopstick-fuls of fish, sauce and rice shovelled into his mouth :-).

Fried Halibut with Ginger, Spring Onion and Soy Sauce