We love Chinese Steamed Fish! It's healthy and full of flavor. We steam and top the fish with ginger, scallions, and cilantro. A simple sauce poured on top makes this a super delicious classic. Serve with rice, of course.
Chinese Steamed Fish is a relatively a simple dish but something about a whole fish feels like a real treat.
We make this whenever my mom comes across a beautiful fish at the market.
You can make this with sea bass, snapper, or kumu fish. (Or any whole fish really, but we love it most with these three fish.)
Sea bass and snapper are more common. So when mom came home with one gorgeous kumu fish last week, I was like, wait! Let me take photos of this so that I can finally put together a recipe post ^_^
Jump to:
Ingredients
Here's what you'll need:
- Whole sea bass, snapper, or kumu fish (about 2 to 2.5 pounds)
- Ginger
- Scallions
- Cilantro
- Sugar
- Salt
- Water
- Soy sauce
- Ground white pepper
- Avocado oil or any neutral oil like canola oil
- Sesame oil optional
- Red chili peppers thinly sliced, optional
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Let's get cooking!
Prepare and steam the fish.
Clean and remove scales from the fish. Place the fish on a large, shallow heatproof dish. Steam for 13-15 minutes.
Make the sauce.
While the fish is steaming, make the sauce. In a small bowl, mix together the salt, sugar, water, soy sauce, and white pepper. Set aside.
Once the fish is done, carefully remove the fish from the steamer and pour out all the water/juice that accumulated on the steaming plate.
Top the fish with aromatics.
Top the fish with the julienned ginger, followed by the julienned scallions. Then top with the cilantro sprigs.
Heat the oil and sauce.
In a small saucepan, heat the avocado oil (you can also use any other neutral oil like canola oil) over high heat.
Once the oil is very hot (takes about 1 minute), add the sauce mixture prepared in Step 3, and stir. Heat for another 15 seconds.
"Sizzle" the fish.
Pour the oil/sauce mixture evenly over the fish. The oil/sauce should be hot enough so that you hear a slight sizzle sound when it's poured over the aromatics.
Note: This "sizzle" sound is the same sizzle you get when making Hot Sesame Oil Tofu. It's like the heat of the oil slightly cooks the dish.
Finish and enjoy.
Top with a drizzle of sesame oil and the thinly sliced chili peppers. These are both optional but a good idea.
Eat hot and enjoy! Best with a big bowl of rice.
Equipment
You'll need a steamer.
If you don't steam food often, you can use a large pot and a trivet.
If you plan to steam a lot, get a double decker steamer. We got ours in Chinatown over a decade ago but it looks similar to this one. We use the steamer daily so it's worth the extra space you'll have to make in the kitchen.
Top Tip
Make sure your steamer plate is big enough to hold the fish. This sounds like common sense but it was only after removing the scales and cleaning the fish did I realize I didn't have my large steamer plate available!
Oh well, just got to make do. It wasn't the perfect solution as you see the fish tail hanging out, but it still was very delicious. Cooking this is much easier with the right size steamer plate.
FAQ
Leftovers keep for 1-2 days in the fridge. Steam to reheat.
Or you can reheat over medium-low heat in a small saucepan. I don't love to reheat leftover fish in the microwave, but you can do it in a pinch ^_^
Definitely with a big bowl of rice!
To round this out, you can also add a vegetable dish or soup dish. A few popular ideas: Choy Sum, Garlic and Fish Sauce Ong Choy (aka Chinese water spinach), Taiwan Spinach, Lotus Root Soup, or Chinese Pork Rib Soup.
Kumu fish = white-saddle goat fish.
Kumu is the Hawaiian word.
Up until researching for this post, I had never heard of white-saddle goat fish hahaha.
In Hawaii, it's called kumu fish! It's a gorgeous fish and endemic to Hawaii. It's pricier than sea bass, snapper but well worth it.
Not at all! You can use a small whole fish if you're having a solo dinner or dinner for two.
Sometimes I even get a nice fish filet instead of a whole fish and make a mini version of Chinese Steamed Fish for dinner. It's just as satisfying! And less clean up ^_^
Chinese Steamed Fish Recipe
Chinese Steamed Fish
Ingredients
- 1 whole sea bass, snapper, or kumu fish about 2 to 2.5 pounds
- ⅓ cup ginger julienned
- 3 stalks scallions julienned
- 8 sprigs cilantro
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons water
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons ground white pepper
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil or any neutral oil like canola oil
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil optional
- 2 small red chili peppers thinly sliced, optional
Instructions
- Clean and remove scales from the fish. Place the fish on a large, shallow heatproof dish. Steam for 13-15 minutes.
- While the fish is steaming, make the sauce. In a small bowl, mix together the salt, sugar, water, soy sauce, and white pepper. Set aside.
- Once the fish is done, carefully remove the fish from the steamer and pour out all the water/juice that accumulated on the steaming plate.
- Top the fish with the julienned ginger, followed by the julienned scallions. Top with the cilantro sprigs.
- In a small saucepan, heat the avocado oil (or any other neutral oil like canola oil) over high heat.Once the oil is very hot (about 1 minute), add the sauce mixture prepared in Step 3, and stir.Heat for another 15 seconds.
- Pour the oil/sauce mixture evenly over the fish. The oil/sauce should be hot enough so that you hear a slight sizzle sound when it's poured over the aromatics.
- Top with a drizzle of sesame oil and the thinly sliced chili peppers (both optional).
- Eat hot and enjoy! Best with a big bowl of rice.
Related
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
Your video made this dish approachable and the fish was tasty.
Thank you, Monica! 🙂
Kathy
Wow! Brings back memories!! When I was very young, I used to spend a lot of time spearfishing in Hawaii. Kumu was one of my favorite fish to spear. My Mom used to make me steamed fish, very similar to your recipe. The only two changes were that she would also put minced garlic in the condiments on top, and finish with hot oil to sizzle the fish. Even after my Mom died, I still made this fish dish for me and my then Chinese wife. But after she passed away, I don't make this dish anymore since my current haole wife doesn't like this kind of dish. Lol! Keep up the posts, I love it!
Spearfishing - wow, that is super cool! I love kumu, but it's def a "special occasion" type fish. Will try with garlic added next time 🙂
- Kathy
Yup, garlic, green onions, ginger, chung Choi, and hot oil! Super delicious!
Hot oil is key! 🙂
Yup; our standard accompaniment for steamed fish was always minced garlic, minced ginger, chopped green onions, chung choi, and hot oil to pour on top. Top with shoyu and eat with hot rice! Man, those were the days. Back then, I would catch or spear my fish -- kumu (spearing), and hook and line for moi, opakapaka, onaga, and even barracuda. Yes, barracuda makes great steamed fish too!