Nope, that's what I do too.

(You can see it hanging out with my onions, potatoes, shallots, and garlic in the background of like... every picture I've ever taken for Eden Cooks.)

It keeps ... generally about 2-3 months? It starts to look whithered after a while but it's still usable on the inside. Just don't keep it in a tupperware/ziplock or anything---if it didn't have air circulation it would rot. less

The fish should be simple to prepare. If you buy it from a supermarket, butcher, or Asian market, ask for the fish to be gutted and have the fins and scales taken off, but leave the head and tail. Choose a fish with intact eyes that looks fresh.

If you catch your fish yourself (any kind of bass or trout will be delicious here), cut a slit in his belly to take out his guts. Remove the scales by rubbing against the grain with a spoon. Be sure you get them all, scales don't taste good at all.

Once your fish is at home and gutted out, rinse it under cool water to make sure all the scales and innards are gone.



Pat the fish dry, and then make three diagonal slices on each side of its body.



These slices will give the sherry, salt, and ginger some contact with the fish.

Zingerone, shogaols and gingerols (the three volatile oils that cause ginger's characteristic odor and flavor) compose between 1 and 3 percent of fresh ginger by weight.
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Put water (more than an inch, up to three inches---just leave an inch between the water and the steam tier) into the bottom of your steamer. Put the heat on high and let the water come to a boil.

In a small bowl that's easy to pour from, dissolve a half teaspoon of salt in two tablespoons of sherry. This might take a bit of stirring.

Pour the sherry into the slices on the sides of your fish, and into the body cavity.

Now pat your shredded ginger in the slices and in the body cavity.



Trivia: A practice (outlawed today, thank goodness!) in old times to make an old or weak horse look young and active was to "feague" it---basically giving it a ginger suppository.
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(While the fish was steaming, my friendly assistant (You might have noticed this isn't my kitchen, and those weren't my arms) was parboiling some baby bok choy in baking soda water and stir frying it in hot peanut oil with some salt. ) Trivia: While ginger is safe and healthful at levels that it's normally consumed in (though it reacts with some medications, including warfarin), you can acutely overdose on it at levels of 2 grams per kilogram of body weight. (For a 150 pound person, this is eating about 5 ounces in a day.) The result of overdosing is CNS overstimulation called the "ginger jitters." less

(While the fish was steaming, my friendly assistant (You might have noticed this isn't my kitchen, and those weren't my arms) was parboiling some baby bok choy in baking soda water and stir frying it in hot peanut oil with some salt. ) Trivia: While ginger is safe and healthful at levels that it's normally consumed in (though it reacts with some medications, including warfarin), you can acutely overdose on it at levels of 2 grams per kilogram of body weight. (For a 150 pound person, this is eating about 5 ounces in a day.) The result of overdosing is CNS overstimulation called the "ginger jitters." less