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(Chinese recipes, prepare authentic Chinese food now!)
I love Chinese-style steamed fish–fresh-from-the-tank live fish steamed with soy sauce and topped with shredded ginger, scallions, and cilantro leaves.
To me, nothing tastes as satisfying as steamed fish with white rice, drizzled with the soy sauce from the steamed fish. Sometimes, I can just eat bowls and bowls of white rice with the soy sauce. Chinese steamed fish is just so delicious!
I am going to be biased on this: I personally think that fish is best eaten steamed. (Yes, sashimi and sushi lovers, you can protest now). It’s mostly a personal preference; I love the texture of a perfectly steamed fish–the flesh is tender, silky, and oh-so-delicate.
Certain kind of fish is highly priced for its exceptional steamed texture, for example: my favorite “Soon Hock” fish, a fresh water fish commonly found in Malaysia. To me, the best part of steamed fish is the two pieces of fish cheek. The slightly chewy texture of fish cheeks is simply divine.
As simple as it might seem, making a perfect Chinese-style steamed fish takes a lot of techniques and skills. I am very fortunate to have learned the secret recipe and tricks from a Cantonese chef that would turn your plain steamed fish to Chinese-restaurant worthy.
As you can see from the picture above, my steamed red cod (红斑鱼) looks like it’s straight from Shang Palace.
Secret Techniques for Restaurant-style Chinese Steamed Fish
- Fresh fish; preferably alive and swimming in a tank.
- 8-10 minutes steaming time. 8 minutes for a smaller fish or 10 minutes for a bigger fish. Use your best judgment, and don’t forget to set your kitchen alarm.
- Discard the fishy and cloudy fish “water” after steaming. Contrary to common belief, it doesn’t add flavors to a steamed fish dish. If any, it will leave a bitter–from the fish guts if the fish was not cleaned properly–and fishy taste.
- Rock sugar. Wonder why the soy sauce is so good that you can just eat plain steamed rice with the soy sauce mixture? Rock sugar is the secret.
- Use oil. Heat up some oil in your wok and pour it over the fish before adding the soy sauce. It gives your steamed fish that perfect sheen before you top it with the soy sauce mixture.
If you love Chinese recipes and wish to make more Chinese-style recipes, head over to my Chinese recipes category to learn more.
Below is my steamed fish recipe. Enjoy!
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 344 calories per serving.
What Dishes to Serve with This Recipe?
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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Chinese Steamed Fish Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 live fish (about 1.5 lb. (0.6 kg) or less)
- 2 inches ginger (peeled and cut into thin strips)
- 1 stalk scallion (cut into 2 inch length (5 cm), and then cut into thin silken threads)
- Some cilantro leaves
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 1 tablespoon shaoxing wine or rice wine
Steamed Fish Soy Sauce Mixture:
- 4 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine (or rice wine)
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
- 3 dashes white pepper powder
- 2 tablespoons rock sugar (grind into powder form or to taste)
Instructions
- Clean the fish properly (remove scales, guts, gills, etc.) and pat dry. Blend the soy sauce mixture in a small bowl and set aside.
- Lay the fish on a plate and drizzle 1 tablespoon shaoxing (or rice) wine on top of the fish. Top the fish with 1/2 of the cut ginger strips.
- Heat up a wok with enough water for steaming. Wait for the water to boil. As soon as it boils, place your fish inside the wok, propped up with a small inverted bowl or a couple of wooden blocks (meant for steaming). Cover your wok tightly and set your kitchen alarm for 8 minutes.
- As soon as the fish is done steaming, transfer it out from the wok. Discard the fish water and ginger strips. Lay the remaining ginger strips on top of the fish.
- Heat up a pan over high heat and add 2 tablespoons of cooking oil, swirl around until it's hot. Pour the hot oil over the steamed fish. Put the pan back onto the stove, add the soy sauce mixture and stir well.
- As soon as the sauce bubbles up and boils, pour the soy sauce over the fish. Topped with scallions and cilantro leaves and serve the steamed fish immediately with white rice.
Video
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Made this tonight fir Father ‘s Day and everybody loved it, especially my FIL who is 94!. I gave him a whole fish and he ate the whole thing! I used 2 large silk snappers so had to increase the sauce, but otherwise followed your directions. 5 stars!!!
Awesome, restaurant quality!
Hi Bee,
Can I use Gula Melaka instead of rock sugar?
Just use sugar, don’t use gula Melaka.
Hello, your recipes are amazing! Even when I prepare them they still taste authentic. I never attempted to cook asian cuisine at home before as I always found it very complicated and difficult. Thank you for making it possible! I made this dish for friends last weekend and they licked the plate clean :)
Hi Julia, yes, my recipes are all restaurant quality, but I simplified it for the home cooks. Thanks for your sweet comment. :)
The recipe sounds delicious. Instead of a whole fish, can i use fish fillets instead (steak slices)? Am thinking of Cod fish.
Yes you can.
Thanks Rasa I’ve had this fish many times when I worked in Malaysia it was vey nice but does it work with salt water fish ..?.
Yes it does.
Great recipe! I’m a vegetarian and I made it for my family and they absolutely raved. Thank you so much :)
Hello I have a question, If I use a grouper fish, how can I differentiate a male from a female fish? what is best to use for this dish a male or a female? thank you God bless
It doesn’t matter if you use female or male fish.
Foolproof, DELICIOUS, perfect recipe. loved the sauce, so i doubled the amount of everything to make double portion of the sauce. Tastes great with steamed jasmine white rice. I ate so much!
NB: i used just half teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to replace shaoxing wine in the sauce. Turned out great; to those who dont have it at hand I suggest that as a replacement.
Thanks for trying this recipe, glad you like my steamed fish recipe.
I travel to china often for business. This is my favorite dish when I am there. I just purchased my first wok. How do I steam fish with it?
I’ve tried this recipe and my husband loves it.
What soy sauce brand did you use? I used Yeos. It was good but thinking to improve the recipe further by trying other sauces.
I used a Taiwanese brand called Kim Lan.
This recipe is a keeper….absolutely delish. Hubby loves it. Glad I have all the ingredients. Will be making this again :)
Thanks Venessa.