Steamed sea bream with ginger and spring onions, jasmine rice and bok choy

Method

1. Rinse the rice in cold water, rubbing it between your fingers and changing the water 3 times, until almost clear. Put in a saucepan with 330 g water, bring to the boil over a high heat (4–5 minutes), cover and cook over a very low heat for 12 minutes without opening the lid. At the same time, put 1 litre water in the base of the steamer, or in the wok beneath its rack, and bring to the boil; the water must never touch the dish.
2. While the rice cooks, peel the ginger by scraping the skin with a spoon. Cut 10 g into thick slices for steaming, to be discarded afterwards, and 20 g into the finest possible matchsticks. Cut the white parts of the spring onions into 4 cm lengths and split the green parts lengthways into long fine shreds. Soak the spring onion shreds and 15 g ginger matchsticks in a bowl of iced water for 5 minutes so they curl and stay crisp, then drain and dry on a tea towel. In a bowl, mix 30 g soya sauce, 35 g water, 6 g sugar and the pinch of white pepper. Wash the bok choy, checking inside the folds, cut the stalks into 3 cm pieces and keep the leaves separate. Thinly slice the garlic.
3. Pat the sea bream dry inside and out with kitchen paper. Put 2 ginger slices and the white part of 1 spring onion in the cavity. Spread the remaining ginger slices and spring onion whites over the base of the deep dish, lay the fish on top and drizzle with the tablespoon of white wine. Do not add salt. When the rice has cooked for 12 minutes, take it off the heat, still covered, to rest for 10 minutes. At this point, put the fish dish into the steamer over vigorous steam. Cover and steam for 10–12 minutes without opening: it is ready when the tip of a chopstick enters without resistance near the backbone at the thickest point, and the white, opaque flesh comes away from the bone.
4. Halfway through steaming the fish, cook the bok choy in a 28 cm frying pan. Heat 10 g sunflower oil over a high heat and stir-fry the stalks for 2 minutes until lightly golden in places. Add the garlic and remaining 5 g ginger for 20 seconds, without browning the garlic. Add 10 g soya sauce, 2 g sugar and 30 g water, cover for 1 minute, until a knife tip enters the stalks with slight resistance. Add the leaves and stir-fry uncovered for 1 minute, until wilted and the liquid has almost disappeared. Turn off the heat and drizzle with 3 g sesame oil.
5. Lift the dish from the steamer using oven gloves. Remove the cooked ginger slices and spring onion whites from beneath the fish; those inside the cavity can stay. Holding the fish in place with a spatula, tilt the dish over the sink and DISCARD all the released liquid: it is watery and smells of boiled fish; steamed fish is served in its sauce, not its cooking water. Rest for 1 minute so the residual heat finishes the cooking, then cover the fish with the ginger matchsticks, spring onion shreds and coriander sprigs.
6. Heat the 25 g sunflower oil in the small saucepan over a high heat for 1–2 minutes, without letting it smoke. It is ready when a shred of spring onion sizzles immediately when dipped in. Turn off the heat and slowly pour the oil over the aromatics along the length of the fish, keeping your face away; they will sizzle and release their fragrance. Pour the sauce mixture into the still-hot saucepan, return to the heat for 30 seconds until simmering to dissolve the sugar, then add 4 g sesame oil off the heat. Pour the hot sauce around the fish, never over it. Serve immediately with the rice fluffed with a fork and the bok choy; use a spoon to slide the flesh off the bone.