Steamed Whole Fish
A whole fish steamed for twelve minutes and finished with smoking oil poured over raw ginger and spring onion. The dish that shows whether the fish was any good.
Photograph credit: Steamed whole fish with roe by Kent Wang · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Flickr · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
What Goes With It
- Steamed rice
- Blanched choy sum
- Green tea
Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Vegan Fried Rice.
How to Make Steamed Whole Fish
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Score the fish twice on each side down to the bone, then rub it inside and out with the salt and wine.
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Lay the whole spring onions and ginger slices on a heatproof plate and set the fish on top, so it sits clear of the plate.
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Steam over rapidly boiling water 12 minutes, until the flesh at the thickest part is just opaque at the bone.
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Warm the soy sauce, water, sugar and white pepper together until the sugar dissolves.
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Lift the plate out and pour off all the liquid that has collected. Discard the cooked spring onion and ginger from underneath.
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Scatter the shredded ginger, spring onion and chilli over the fish.
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Heat the oil until it just begins to smoke and pour it slowly over the aromatics — it should hiss and sizzle.
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Pour the warm soy sauce around the fish, not over it, and finish with coriander.
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Notes From the Method
Twelve minutes for a 700 g fish. Check at the bone.
Pour off the collected liquid. It is the usual culprit.
Smoking oil over raw shreds, and sauce around the fish, not over it.
Common Substitutions & Variations
- Out of spring onions? A small regular onion, finely sliced, or a few chives stirred in at the end both cover the job.
- Dried chilli flakes can stand in for the red chilli. Heat varies a great deal between chillies and between jars, so start with a small pinch and add more to taste.
- If you only have ground ginger, a quarter-teaspoon for each tablespoon of fresh is the ratio usually given; it tastes warmer and less bright than the fresh root.
Leftovers
Best immediately. Refrigerated 1 day at most.
Nutrition per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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