Chinese Shark

No this is not the latest craze on Cartoon Network, believe it or not.  It was last night's dinner.  And quite tasty it was, too.  Easy to make, pleasing to the whole family, a winner in my book.  The baby is going through this mysterious stage where he doesn't want to eat vegetables.  I'm not really sure why, and quite frankly, I really don't care. Eating vegetables is not an optional thing around here, and the sooner he learns that and quits screeching and throwing things, the better off we'll be.  But he ate last nights veggies without protest, which made dinner a much quieter affair. See? If you were brought a steamy yummy looking plate like this-- I bet you'd eat your veggies too.

Ingredients:
1 lb. shark steak (preferably wild-caught)
1 cup jasmine rice
4 cups water (divided)
a large chunk of fresh ginger
frozen veggies
tamari sauce
powdered garlic
Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup onion
rice vinegar
sesame oil
corn starch
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
lemon zest


Cut your shark steak into large cubes and place in a bowl.  Grate up about a tablespoon of fresh ginger, and about a teaspoon of lemon zest.  Sprinkle with about 1 teaspoon of rice vinegar, 1tsp. powdered garlic, and about 1 tsp. of tamari sauce toss. Set aside.  Start rice cooking (for me jasmine rice seems to take about 25 minutes.  I have no package directions because we bought a 25 pound bag and are down to just a bit in a Rubbermaid container.)  In a large skillet, pour about 1 tablespoon of sesame oil and the chopped onions.  Once the onions start to turn translucent, add the marinated shark to the oil and cook at medium heat until the chunks are cooked through.  I forgot to time this, but was able to prep coffee for the following morning, inspect a messy child's room, feed rice chex to the baby, stirring throughout, and then I think it was done, if that gives you an idea.  Remove shark to another (clean-please!) bowl.

Grate more ginger into the pan, add another teaspoon or two of garlic, about 1/8 cup tamari, 1/8 cup Worcestershire sauce, another tsp or so of lemon zest. Stir together, and add the frozen veggies. Fresh would be great if you have them on hand, I did not.  I used a frozen pack of "Asian" vegetables and a mystery can of salt-free green beans that has been around for ages.  Cook until veggies are cooked through, then add them to the bowl of shark.  In the same pan, add more sesame oil, about 1 tablespoon, more grated ginger and lemon zest, 1/8 cup rice vinegar, and about the same amount tamari sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Add 1 teaspoon of powdered garlic, 1 teaspoon of brown sugar, 1/2 tsp. of cayenne.  Then, dissolve some corn starch into 3 cups of warm water.  How much you use depends on how thick you want your sauce to be.  Add this mixture to the sauce and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and cook together for about 3 minutes.

Add shark and veggies to the pan and stir well, making sure all is coated evenly.  Serve shark & vegetables over rice with sake. This meal is totally gluten-free.  I'm not sure about the sake though.

A note on sake:  We always buy the same brand, and we only buy it at Super H Mart.  It's twice the price anywhere else.  We have developed a pretty easy method for heating it, since we like hot sake but don't want to cook the alcohol out.  We bring a small pot of water to a boil, then remove it from the heat.  Then pour your sake into your sake carafe and place it in the water for 2-3 minutes. Remove the carafe and pour from there.