A warm and satisfying dish of dried salted fish, ground pork, and ginger, all steamed together. Savory, saucy, and full of flavors. Super easy to make. Spoon the prepared dish over a big bowl of rice and enjoy!
Steamed Pork With Salted Fish is a dish that we grew up eating. It's usually served as a simple weekday lunch or as part of a larger dinner.
There is only one rule when it comes to this recipe: you must eat it with rice!
The prepared dish super flavorful and quite salty - it is made to be enjoyed with a big bowl of rice.
Why This Recipe Works
This is a simple recipe with just three ingredients (dried salted fish, ground pork, and ginger).
This is a dish of pantry ingredients:
- We have dried salted fish stored in the refrigerator (they keep for a very long time). There are many salted fish recipes (we'll post more soon), and this is one of our favorites.
- There's always ground pork in the freezer, ready for last minute meals like this!
- We keep small bags of julienned ginger in the freezer - we julienne ginger in bulk because we use it often in daily cooking. Frozen ginger comes in handy for many dishes and dipping sauces.
All three ingredients are layered in a steam-able dish. Top with a few slices of chili peppers (optional) and steam.
Then it is ready to eat. Super simple, and packed with all these savory flavors. You have got to love the slightly pungent flavor of dried fish. Some say it's an acquired taste, but I don't know anyone who doesn't love it ^_^ If you love anchovies you'll love this for sure.
Ingredients
- Dried salted fish - These small fish are sold whole. We purchase them from different markets in Chinatown. They may also be labeled as Chinese salted fish. How to prepare salted fish? It's simple. For this recipe, just slice the fish into thin half-inch slices. There will be bones and there's nothing you can really do about that. Just pick them out while eating.
- Ground Pork
- Ginger - Julienned
Note: This is a very flexible recipe. Feel free to use more or less of any ingredient. My dad likes it with more pork, but my mom likes it with more fish. And I love it with lots and lots of ginger.
Step by Step Directions
Ready to start cooking?
Layer.
In a deep dish (that's steam-able), layer the sliced salted fish on the bottom. Make sure to cover the whole bottom of the dish.
Then top the fish with ground pork (just scatter the pork all over, no need to push/mash it down). And then place the ginger on top.
If you want to add chili peppers, slice them and sprinkle on top. We usually add Thai or Hawaiian chili peppers.
Tip: Make sure the dish you use is:
- Steam-able - We are going to steam the dish. Don't use plastic dishes.
- Deep - A lot of sauce/juice will be created while steaming. All the sauce will spill over if your dish isn't deep enough.
Steam.
Steam for 10-15 minutes, until cooked through.
Eat with rice.
Remove the dish from the steamer and it's ready to eat. So easy!
Enjoy with rice! Feel free to finish with a dash of Maggi Seasoning if you'd like.
Tip: A good amount of sauce/juice will form while the dish steams. This sauce is liquid gold! I almost love it more than the dish itself ^_^ Save it to spoon over rice.
FAQs and Tips
3-4 days in the refrigerator, in a sealed container
Microwave for 1-2 minutes, in 30-second increments. Or steam for 5-6 minutes.
This dish must be enjoyed with rice.
Why? This dish has a crazy ton of flavor. Eating it plain would be much too salty. I usually take a medium spoonful of the dish and place it over my bowl of rice.
Then I take a spoonful of the sauce (that forms while the dish is steaming) and also spoon that over the rice. And then I eat one big spoonful of rice, pork/fish/ginger, and the sauce. Super ono!
This is one of those dishes that just make you want to eat more and more rice. It demands rice. I cook double the amount of rice we typically eat when preparing this dish.
Yes, there will be fish bones. Fish have bones and that's the price we pay for the pleasure of enjoy fish. You just have to pick them out while eating. It is well worth the effort.
Because this dish is so packed with flavor and is quite intense, I love to serve it with a simple vegetable or tofu dish like:
- Roasted Cabbage
- Braised Cabbage
- Boiled Okra
- Garlic and Fish Sauce Ong Choy
- Korean Bean Sprouts
- Hijiki Salad
- Garlic and Ginger Green Beans
- Chinese Sausage (Lap Cheong) and Green Beans
- Simmered Daikon
- Avocado Tofu
- Hot Sesame Oil Tofu
Steamed Pork With Salted Fish Recipe
See below and enjoy ^_^
Steamed Pork With Salted Fish
A warm and satisfying dish of dried salted fish, ground pork, and ginger, all steamed together. Savory, saucy, and full of flavors. Spoon the prepared dish over a big bowl of rice and enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 dried salted fish (2-3 ounces), cut into half-inch slices
- ½ pound ground pork
- 1 2-inch knob of ginger, julienned
Instructions
- In a deep dish, layer the salted fish on the bottom. Top with ground pork and then the ginger. Top with sliced Thai or Hawaiian chili peppers if desired.
- Steam for 10-15 minutes until cooked through.
- Remove from the steamer and it's ready to eat!
- Enjoy with rice! (The sauce that forms in the bowl is super good spooned over rice.) Feel free to add a dash of Maggi Seasoning.
This is a very homey dish that we ate often when I was growing up. My parents always put the salted fish on top of the pork. The salted fish that they bought was much more dried than in your picture, and they used much less. I'll have to buy salted dried fish so I can make this at home.
Aloha Sandy! I noticed that many families put the fish on top and use less fish (you nailed both points!)...I think that might actually be more common. I'm not sure how we ended up doing fish on the bottom and more fish, but that's how we've always made it at home. It's pretty neat how every family has their own style/tradition. Enjoy ^_^
- Kathy
Yup, another old school dish. Brings back old fond memories. I love pork hash. I used to make it all the time at home. My late wife and I ate steamed pork hash with salted duck eggs (remember those?). She also loved salt fish; me, not so much. I think she used to call that harm nee??. You hardly ever see that kind of old school food anymore, even at Chinese restaurants.
Ooo yes, I love the steamed pork has with salted duck egg combo...it's been awhile since I last had that! Man, now I am craving it haha. We call the salted fish "ham yee"...similar spelling! "Ham" = salty. "Yee" = fish. So salty fish 🙂
- Kathy
@Kathy, Thanks for the Cantonese language lesson. My late wife and her family spoke Cantonese but obviously not me. Whatever I know I just picked up from listening to them speak. But I am at least somewhat proficient with food names. At least I can order food that I want. LOL!