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I’m sure you know how much Chinese restaurants can charge for steamed fish. Rather than spending in excess of £20 to £30 on this one dish, why not prepare it at home instead? It’s really simple, according to my mother, so here is her recipe. You can steam any type of fish, but Chinese people usually like whole fish - sea bass, turbot, halibut or trout, to name but a few.
Chinese Steamed Fish:
It usually takes about 10 minutes to steam a normal-sized whole fish. If the fish is too large or quite thick, then cut it in half lengthways before steaming it. After cleaning, scaling and gutting the fish, you might want to rub the fish with a little bit of salt and wine vinegar, inside and outside, then rinse with water after a short while. Doing this will remove the smell of the fish as well as add more flavour to it.
Place the fish on a metal platter or dish, which then goes onto a metal rack in a wok or large pan. Add some water to the wok or pan, at a level lower than the rack. Place some very finely sliced ginger and spring onion on top of the fish and cover the wok or pan with a lid. When the fish is ready (you can test it with a fork or chopstick), pour away the sauce, ginger and onion bits as this will smell too fishy. Add a bit of salt and white pepper, a few drops of lemon juice or white wine and light soy sauce (not too much to start with in case you make the fish too salty).
Heat a pan, add some vegetable oil and fry more finely sliced ginger and spring onion for a few minutes. Pour all this on top of the fish, and place some cooked pieces of spring onion (about 3 inches long) under the fish as well. Eat while hot with steamed white rice!
PS If the flesh near the backbone is still a bit bloody, then just avoid eating this part. Unfortunately, if you cook the fish a bit more at this stage, the entire fish will end up being overcooked and dry. It’s hard to get the fish absolutely perfect and even my mother doesn’t always manage this!
See my recent post on my favourite Cantonese home-cooked meals for my mother’s other recipes.
