Steamed Tilapia with Garlic Ginger Tausi Sauce

This is probably the best steamed fish dish I have ever made.

Find yourself a nice, live tilapia. Buy it live and have the fishmonger gut and clean it for you, or buy it live and gut it and clean it yourself at home. Believe me, fresh tilapia tastes cleaner, fresher, the meat sweet and firm. Why tilapia? It's more widely available and more affordable than live lapu-lapu. Most city public markets should have some vendor selling live tilapia. Besides, reading about cyanide and/or dynamite fishing of lapu-lapu does not make me want to support any more of those practices. I am hoping that less demand for the lapu-lapus will eventually lead to less overfishing. I was quite saddened seeing some small red lapu-lapu for sale in Farmer's Market in Cubao. They weren't even given a chance to grow bigger. And almost all of the lapu-lapu I saw sold there had mushy stomach areas. Which I read somewhere were caused by dynamite fishing. But that is a post for another day. For now, I'm sticking to Tilapia.

Clean the fish, make sure to rinse out any remaining guts, blood, and what have you. Make several deep diagonal slits on both sides of the fish. Grate some ginger, about a 1-inch piece (I used a Japanese ginger grater I bought from Saizen, I'll make a post on it soon), leave a few big pieces for stuffing into the fish cavity. Since I had some lemongrass left, I also cut up a stalk into 1-inch slices. Season the fish with salt and pepper to taste, rub the salt and pepper all over the fish, into the diagonal slices, and inside the cavity. Rub half the grated ginger all over the fish, making sure to put some inside the diagonal slices too. Then put the remaining ginger and lemongrass slices inside the fish cavity. Steam tilapia for 10 mins or longer, depending on the size of fish, on an oiled rack to prevent sticking. Yes, on a rack. We want all the fishy juices from the fish to drain out. Only start timing once the water boils. A tilapia sized like mine takes 10 minutes, a bigger one maybe 12 minutes. The deep slits on the fish should help the thick parts cook evenly. Take care not to overcook the fish.

Meanwhile, on a clean cutting board, slice some leeks into strips. Set aside. Chop some garlic, about 3-5 cloves. Rinse 2 tablespoons or more of black beans. Rinse the black beans well if you don't want it to be too salty, and rinse them less if you like your sauce more salty. Chop or mash the black beans.

When fish is done, transfer to a serving plate. Throw out the steaming water. Pile the leeks on top of the cooked tilapia.

On a clean wok, heat about 1/4 cup of oil, preferably peanut oil. Saute the garlic and remaining grated ginger until fragrant, but do not burn the garlic. Toss in the mashed black beans. Add about two tablespoons of water. Remove any ginger fibers you may have missed while grating. Season to taste with a small amount of soy sauce and a scant teaspoon of sugar to round out the flavor. Heat oil until very hot, turn off the heat, and pour over the leeks and tilapia. Serve.