Recipe: Steamed Fish

Nothing beats a fresh plate of steamed fish drizzled with soy sauce. It’s a healthy and delicious dish best eaten with white rice. With the tender and moist fish meat, it is an easy recipe to make at home.

Unlike its sweet and sour counterpart, this dish has a simple but fresh taste. Many types of fish can be used for this dish. The most common ones are bass, flounder, and tilapia. It is better to use fresh fish as the meat will have great flavour, and will be tender and sweet.

Typically, hot oil is poured on top of the fish. The hot oil gives a shiny appearance to the fish and releases the aromatic flavours into the flesh of the fish. Then, soy sauce is poured on top, and the steamed fish is finally topped with scallions and cilantro.

Some people used the cloudy water that is produced after steaming the fish. However, this will make the dish have a fishy and bitter taste. It does not add any extra flavours to the dish at all.

Ingredients (4 people):

• • 1 fresh fish, about 800g or less
  • 2 inches ginger (cut into thin strips)
  • 1 scallion (julienned)
  • 4 cilantro leaves
  • 2 tbsp cooking oil
  • 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
• For Soy Sauce mixture
  • 4 tbsp light soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
  • 2 tbsp water
  • ¼ tsp sesame oil
  • 50g white pepper powder
  • 2 tbsp rock sugar (grind into powder form)

Directions:

1. Prep the fish properly by removing its scales, guts, gills, and fins. After washing the fish, make sure to pat the fish dry.
2. Place the fish on a plate and drizzle 1 tbsp of Chinese cooking wine on top of the fish — place ½ of the sliced ginger on top.
3. Fill the wok with enough water for steaming and heat it. Once the water has boiled, place the fish inside the wok by propping it up with a small inverted bowl. Then, cover the wok tightly and let it cook for 8 minutes. If you have a steamer, just place the plate with the fish inside.
4. Once the fish is done steaming, transfer it to another plate. Throw away the fish water and sliced ginger. Put the remaining sliced ginger on top of the fish.
5. Heat the cooking oil in the frying pan under high heat, then quickly pour it on top of the fish.
6. Using the same pan, add in the soy sauce mixture and stir well. Once the sauce boils, pour them over the fish.
7. Garnish the fish with scallions and cilantro leaves. Serve it immediately with white rice. 

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