Steamed Fish

A whole fish steamed eight minutes, its liquid thrown away and replaced.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

• 1 whole fish, about 700 g, cleaned and scaled
• a thumb of ginger, half sliced and half shredded
• 4 spring onions, 2 halved and 2 shredded
• 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• a handful of coriander

Method

1. Score the fish three times on each side, down to the bone. It cooks evenly that way and you can see when it is done.
2. Lay the halved spring onions and sliced ginger on a heatproof plate and sit the fish on top of them, so steam circulates underneath. A fish flat on the plate steams on one side and poaches on the other.
3. Pour the wine over and steam over hard-boiling water for 8 minutes for a fish this size, plus a minute for every extra 100 g. Test at the thickest part by the head: the flesh should part from the bone.
4. THROW THE LIQUID ON THE PLATE AWAY. It tastes of the pond and ruins everything that follows. Lift the fish onto a clean plate and discard the aromatics it sat on.
5. Warm the soy sauce with the sugar and a tablespoon of water and pour it round, not over, the fish.
6. Pile the shredded ginger, shredded spring onion and coriander on top.
7. Heat the oil until it shimmers and pour it over the shreds. It should hiss hard — that is what cooks them.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes