Cantonese-style steamed fish with scallions and ginger

Cantonese-style steamed fish, garnished with scallions and coriander. Served with soy sauce.

The Cantonese style steamed fish showcases the freshness of the seafood here in Hong Kong, with only a fish, salt, ginger, scallions, coriander, and soy sauce. Let's explore this Cantonese classic that everyone knows and loves.

Since this is my first blog post, I want to do something that means a lot to me, so I thought: why don't I share the recipe for the dish that made me start cooking? And that's what this is, the dish that started it all.

It is often said that Chinese people show love through food, and that is very much true. When I was a kid, my mom did all the cooking for our family, and she was really good at it. Out of all the things she made, her steamed fish was hands down my favourite. My caring mother picked up on this and (I can only assume) shared it with my family. Because from then on, whenever we visited our relatives, they would always serve this dish, and they would make it very clear that they prepared it specifically for me. Which made me feel loved and cared for.

As I grew up, I constantly begged my mother for cooking lessons because, to me, cooking was the coolest thing ever (since I would be eating my favourite food every day). She finally gave in and showed me how to make this dish, and it was one of the first things I've ever made. It wasn't hard technique-wise, but it still needs some love and care.

That's enough storytime for today. Let's get on with the recipe, shall we?

Ingredients

To start, we have to prepare our ingredients, including a knob of ginger, a small bunch of scallions, some corriander, some salt and of course, the star of the show, the fish. It really doesn't matter what type of fish you choose (although flaky white fish would be the best); however, the quality of fish does make a huge difference. We want to use the freshest fish we can find, as the small amount of seasoning used means that bad flavours will not be covered up. Of course, high-quality frozen fish can be used. I've seen people use frozen black cod with great results. Some of my favourite fish to use for this recipe include:

• Groupers

• Snappers

• Seabreams

The traditional way would be to use a whole fish, as it symbolises the idea of 有頭有尾, which directly translates to "With head, with tail". A better translation would be "To do things from start to finish, no shortcuts." - Great advice for life and cooking.

But don't worry if you can't find whole fish; it is perfectly fine to use fillets for this recipe, just be aware that the skin might shrink a bit, and the presentation might not be the best.

Preparation

To start, we have to clean the fish. Today, I will be using a yellow croaker. A beautiful fish with flaky and soft meat.

Yellow Croaker, a local fish with soft flesh like no other.

Using the tail of a spoon, scrub away the bloodline present along the spine. You might have to break through a membrane if you don't see it at first, just keep going until it is clean. Next, depending on the type of fish you chose, the black membrane of the belly needs to be removed as well, as this is where the fishy flavours concentrate. Just scratch it off with your fingers or use a clean toothbrush.

After that, we have to clean the scales left by the fishmonger, it just so happens that I have the best fishmonger at the market downstairs, so I dont have a lot of cleaning up to do, but the scales would most likely be left along the dorsal fin and the belly, just scrape it off with a knife and you'll be set.

The next step would be the most important: DRY the fish. I use paper towels for this, but you want to pat it until it is very dry, inside and out, which you can tell as the paper towel will start to stick to the fish. This step is important because it prevents the buildup of fish water in the plate after steaming, as well as removing the natural layer of slime found on fish skin, which contributes to an off flavour.

Some chefs add a bit of cornstarch and rub it all over at this point for better presentation; however, for me, it's too much of a hassle and not that big of a difference.

After that, we season the fish with a bit of fine salt, about 1 teaspoon for a fish my size. We want to rub it all around the fish, inside and out. Be careful not to overseason, as the soy sauce we add in the end is salty as well. For this recipe, it is better to underseason than to overseason. We will let this sit for around 15 minutes. In the meantime, we can prep our garnishes.

For the ginger, we want to aim for a julienne, or matchsticks. It doesn't have to be perfect; it is used to get rid of the natural fishy taste.

Juillened ginger

For the scallions, we want to separate the white (in my case, red) part from the green part. After washing and slicing off the roots, I cut off around 3 inches of the white part and set the green part aside for garnishing.

For the white part, we can leave it as it is. For the green part, we will have to cut into fine strands. Using a sharp knife, cut along the length of the scallion using a rocking motion. I would argue this is much more difficult than Michelin-starred chives, so don't be discouraged if yours look kinda bad.

Sliced scallions, the thinner it gets, the more flavour they will give in the end.

For the coriander, discard the root, separate the stems and leaves. For the stems, cut them into 3-inch pieces, and for the leaves, a rough chop will do.

You should end up with something like this.

Ginger, Scallions and Coriander

Cooking the fish

Now we have all our preparation done, it is time to assemble the dish. First, take half the ginger, scallion whites, and coriander stems and stuff them inside the cavity of the fish.

Then, take the remaining ginger, scallion whites, and coriander stems and place them neatly on a plate, as shown below.

Lay a bed of ginger, garlic, and coriander stems

This does 3 things:

1) It allows circulation at the underside of the fish so that the steam can cook the fish evenly.

2) It adds aroma to the dish.

3) It prevents the fish skin from sticking to the plate.

So don't forget this step.

Next, take the fish and lay it on the bedding of herbs. If the cut along the belly is made off-centre, lay it cut side down, so that the moisture in the cavity doesn't pool inside, forming a puddle.

Put the fish on top of the bed of herbs.

Now it's time to steam, using a steamer (I'm using my wok as a steamer), and add the fish when the water is at a rolling boil. For a fish my size, I'd say 8 minutes should be enough. The water needs to maintain a rapid boil throughout the cooking process for the steam to circulate.

In the meantime, we can make our soy sauce. I usually use a pre-made blend of soy sauce labelled 蒸魚豉油, and it works perfectly fine. But if you can't find it, or you want to be a bit more hands-on for this, here's how you would make the soy sauce.

In a saucepan, add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar and water in the ratio of 2 : 1 : 1 : 1, bring it to a boil, and you're set. If you want, you can add some ginger and scallions as aromatics to bring in some more flavour to the final dish.

Now that the time is up for the fish, check for doneness by inserting a chopstick into the thickest part of the fish; there should be just a little bit of resistance. Once it's alright, we want to pour away most of the water under the fish.

Add the remaining scallion strands, coriander and ginger to the fish. Heat some oil until smoking hot, and pour it on top of the herbs. Be careful, as it will splatter a little bit and make a scary sound.

Pouring hot oil on fish

To complete the dish, spoon the soy sauce around the fish.

Cantonese style steamed fish, yum!

How to serve Cantonese style steamed fish

This dish pairs perfectly with a hot bowl of rice, as if they were made to be together. To best enjoy the dish, take a piece of fish, put it on the rice and drizzle with the godly soy sauce. One of the best and most comforting bites in the world. Enjoy!

My favourite way of serving this is to mix the soy sauce with the rice and fish, best bite in the world.