Easy Steamed Fish

Whenever I can I will try to steam fish as I love fish very much. As for Hub, well…before we got married, he’s not so crazy about steam fish after a bad meal at one of the prominent restaurants in KL a long time ago. I think it’s because the fish was not fresh or not properly cook. Fresh fish should not taste or smell fishy. 

I love white fish (trevally type) a lot and it’s probably one of the very few types of fish we eat regularly. Sometimes when I couldn’t get any fresh white fish, I would substitute with silver prompret for this same recipe and it tastes equally good too.

My style of steaming fish is very easy to prepare. Very little seasoning is required so we can taste the original freshness and sweetness of the fish. With the addition of other ingredients like lemongrass, coriander leaves, shallot, garlic and ginger, it just brings out the flavour even more. For best results, choose the freshest fish you can find from the wet market.

Before I got married, I often use Chinese cooking wine to get rid of the fishiness. But since I can’t use wine in my cooking anymore so now I substitute it with sesame oil, pepper and lots of ginger. Or you can also squeeze half a lemon over your fish before cooking. The acid in the lemon neutralizes the odor. It shouldn’t impart much lemon flavor, since most of the lemon evaporates during cooking.

Steamed Fish

Ingredients (serves 4)
1 whole fresh white fish (about 500gm)
1 stalk of lemongrass – cut in half to have 2 pieces that each have a flat side
4 sprigs of fresh coriander leaves – roughly chopped
1 shallot – peeled and sliced
2 cloves of garlic – peeled and minced

3-inch fresh young ginger - sliced or julienned 

2 tbsp oyster sauce

½ tbsp chicken stock powder (I prefer Maggi brand)

A few drops of sesame oil

1½ cup hot water (My children like to drizzle the sauce over their rice)

Salt – to taste

A few dash of pepper

Instructions

1.    Clean the fish and score a couple of slits in the thickest part of the fish and dry the fish with kitchen towel.  Rub salt and pepper all over the fish including the cavity.

2.    Lay the lemongrass on the bottom of a dish and place the fish on top. The lemon grass will also prevent the fish from sticking to the base of the dish.

3.   Scatter half of the ginger over and in the cavity of the fish. Steam at high heat for 20 minutes till fish is cooked then move the fish into a deep dish.

4.    In a bowl, mix the oyster sauce, chicken stock powder and sesame oil then add hot water to make a sauce. Stir to combine. Then transfer the sauce to a wok and bring to a boil. Pour the sauce all over the fish.

5.    Now for the grand finale, you can pick option (a) or (b). The choice is yours:

(a)  Garnish with lots of coriander leaves then heat up a wok over medium-high heat, add about 1½ tbsp of oil and sauté the remaining ginger, shallot and garlic till fragrant. Remove from the heat then pour it (everything including the hot oil) directly over the coriander leaves and the fish. (This is my younger brother’s favourite).

(b) Scatter the ginger then the coriander leaves over the fish and heat up a wok over medium-high heat, add about 1½ tbsp of oil. The oil must be really hot then remove from the heat and carefully pour it directly over the coriander leaves, ginger and the fish. If you go for this option then omit the shallot and garlic, you only need the ginger.

 The fish should be served hot. Enjoy!

Note: 
If you want to use only one dish then it’s better to use a deep steaming dish but you have to drain off the liquid from the steamed fish because normally the liquid is quiet fishy.