Chinese Steamed Fish

As we usher in the New Chinese Year today, let’s eat fish! Not only is fish a fine food to eat on Friday (especially if you’re Catholic) but if you’re speaking Mandarin, fish (鱼 yu) symbolizes prosperity, because yu is a homonym for surplus.

Steaming is a healthy and delicious way to cook fish creating a sumptuous sauce to spoon over rice. Moreover, steam heat is gentle yet fast. Cooking is done in 8-10 minutes. Once your fillets pass the flake-test, you can leave your fish covered in the steamer and it will stay warm while you set the table or finish stir-frying some Chinese greens like bok choy or gai lan.

Chinese-style steamed ﬁsh

Servings: 4
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1 lb/450 gm sea bass, cod, salmon, haddock, tilapia or halibut ﬁllet, cut into 4 pieces

Sauce:

2 TBS black bean and garlic sauce OR 2 tsp soy sauce

2 tsp toasted sesame oil

2 TBS water

2 TBS Japanese mirin or cooking sherry

1 three-inch knob ginger, peeled and thinly sliced into matchsticks

3 green onion OR 1 small leek, thinly sliced lengthwise

2 TBS fresh coriander, chopped

Mix sauce ingredients in a small bowl.

Place ﬁllets in a heat-proof dish that will ﬁt inside an aluminum or bamboo steamer. (Or, create your own steamer by placing a rack set in a large skillet.)

Using a spoon, place an equal amount of sauce on each ﬁllet. Sprinkle over with ginger matchsticks and green onions or leek.

Bring several inches of water to boil in the steamer. Wearing oven gloves, place the dish with ﬁllets into the steamer.

Cover and steam 8-10 minutes on high, or until the ﬁsh ﬂakes at the touch of a fork and is opaque in the middle.

Garnish with fresh coriander and serve over steamed rice.