White Sea Bass (Corvina) w/ Chinese Blackbean Sauce

A few days ago I had no clue as to what to cook for dinner that night. I decided to p0p into the 17th Street Market in Tucson. It's an international market with fantastic produce and seafood as well as products and ingredients from around the world with a very extensive Asian section.

I went to the produce department first. It's basically a huge walk-in fridge which is a great place to be on a day when its 110 outside. The Baby Bok Choy immediately caught my eye. I've yet to figure out where in the heck they get this stuff. Probably trucked in from California. I can't imagine anybody successfully growing it nearby in this climate. Anyhow, I grabbed a pound or so and ambled on to the fish counter.

Mahi Mahi, Jewel like Bluefin Tuna, several varieties of Salmon, nice looking Red snapper, Rock Cod all looking pretty darn nice. Then I saw this Corvina aka White Sea Bass line caught in Mexico. Beautiful big thick fillets looking extraordinarily fresh. Translucent and glistening. I immediately flashed on this Sea Bass with Black bean sauce that I had several times at Creasian restaurant in San Leandro California. I bought a pound and a half, picked up some fermented black beans in the Chinese section, reviewed in my head what else I might need and what I knew was at home in the pantry, and moved on.

Menu
Corvina with Chinese Black bean sauce.
Braised Baby Bok Choy
Steamed Jasmine Rice

Ingredients:

• 1.5-2 lbs of filleted Corvina (White Sea Bass) with skin removed and cut to portions of approximately 6 oz each. (Other firm white fish such as Grouper, Chilean Sea Bass, Halibut etc. can be used) .
  
• White rice flour for dredging the fish and thickening the sauce. (Corn starch can be used but the rice flour is much better)
• Sesame oil
• Canola oil

Sauce

• 1/3-1/2 cup Chinese Fermented Black Beans (depends on how much you love these salty little gems)
  
• 1/2 cup Chicken Stock (unsalted)
• 1/4 cup Chinese Rice Wine 'Xiao Xing' or Dry Sherry
• 1 Tbs. Light Soy sauce
• a dribble of Rice wine vinegar
• a few drops of Sesame Oil
  
• 1 Tbs very fine julienne of Fresh Ginger
• 1 Tsp Chinese Chili Garlic sauce (Lee Kum Kee brand is very good)
• Fresh whole garlic cloves for sauce and Bok Choy

• 1-1.5 lbs Baby Bok Choy or similar green. Make Freshness the priority.

• Jasmine Rice

Procedure overview.

Cut the bottom 1/2 inch or so from each head of Bok Choy so that the leaves separate. Rinse thoroughly and set aside in a colander.

Slice lengthwise 3-4 cloves of garlic and set aside.

Put the rice up to cook. Follow cooking directions on the bag. a Rice cooker is by far the best way to cook it but a good covered pot will due as well but keep an eye open for when it's done.

While the rice is cooking make the sauce then set it to the side in a warm place.

You will Start cooking the fish once the rice is done.

Start the Bok Choy once the Fish has started cooking.

Procedure:

Black Bean Sauce:
Soak and rinse the Black Beans at least 4-5 times.
After final rise let them soak in just enough water to cover for at least 10 minutes.
(do not discard this water)
Put the Black Beans and all other sauce ingredients plus about 2 cloves of garlic chopped very fine or smashed through a garlic press.
Bring to a simmer for at least 10 minutes.
Carefully add some of the rice flour by sprinkling in about a teaspoon at a time followed by thorough mixing (a Small whisk is ideal for this). Do this until the sauce thickens to a syrupy consistency. Neither gloppy nor too watery.
Give it a taste. You're looking for an extremely savory flavor with almost chocolaty undertones and some tangyness on top. you may want to add a few drops of the vinegar at this point to add that bright tangy note. Very big flavor but balanced.


The fish:
Put some Rice flour into a pie pan or deep plate, dredge each portion throroughly in the flour.
Pour just shy of a 1/2 inch of Canola oil into a deep skillet. add about a traspoon of the sesame oil. Turn on burner to a medim high temp. Bring up to frying temperature (you'll see the oil start to ripple. You may want to test the temp with a crumb of the flor that has stuck together.)
Add each portion to the pan (shake off the excess flour before placing in the pan).
Fry the first side to a nice golden brown and you can see the cooked lin about a third of the way up the side of the portion.
Carefully flip each piece over and cook to the same exten if the pieces are fairly chunky you can cook on the remaing sides as well until the fish looks nice and cruchy all the way around.
Remove all from the pan and blot btifly on paper towels to take off excess oil then put each portion on a plate.

The Bok Choy:
If you are an adept kitchen multi-tasker you can have this cooking at the same time as the fish.
If not, I suggest you do it before you start the fish and then set it aside in a covered serving dish.

In a deep saute pan or wok heat up about a tablespoon of Canola oil with a few drops of Sesame oil added. Heat up to the ripple point and add the sliced Garlic. Let it sizzle for a few seconds than add all the Bok Choy leaves. Toss around thoroughly and repeatedly for a few minutes. add a little bit of salt. Sauce for the fish is quite salty so you'll want to keep it down on the other dishes in the meal. When eaten in concert together nothing will seem under salted.
Once you see that all the green part of the leaves has started to wilt give a splash of the Rice Wine and a few splashes of chicken stock. Now cover the pan or wok and set to very low simmer for about 5 minutes. You'll cook this to the extent that the green stays vivid and the white of stem does not turn mushy. In other words don't over cook. Al dente as they say.

Now Plate up!
Ladle a nice ribbon of the sauce across the fish so that it pools onto the plate but does not completely blanket the fish.
Serve with a mound of rice and some Bok Choy on each plate.

Enjoy!

ps
I'll make this again this week and shoot some pictures to add to this post.