Steamed Whole Fish
A steamed whole fish is a staple of Chinese Cantonese cuisine. Steamed fish is served at holiday meals and special occasions like Cantonese weddings, Chinese New Year banquets, and family gatherings.
Ingredients
- 1 kg whole fish
For Fish Marination
- 2 tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice
- 1-½ tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp celery seeds
- 1 tbsp red chili flakes
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
While Steaming the Fish
- 2 scallions
- 5-6 cloves garlic
- 1 inch ginger piece
- 2-3 slices capsicum
- 2-4 fresh green chilies
- butter as desired
For Sauce
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- 1 tsp garlic paste
- ½ cup diced carrot
- ½ cup diced capsicum
- 1 cup fresh orange juice
- 2 scallions green part chopped
- ¼ tsp salt or to taste
- ¼ tsp white pepper powder
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- 4 tbsp water
Instructions
Preparing the Fish
- Ensure that your fish is scaled and gutted completely. Cut off the fins with kitchen shears. If you do not remove the fins before steaming, you can remove them easily after steaming. Rinse the whole fish clean.
- Apply deep cuts on both sides of the cleaned whole fish with the kitchen knife. Keep ½ inch distance between the cuts.
Fish Marination
- Take a mixing bowl and marinate the fish by combining white vinegar or lemon juice, salt, celery seeds, red chili flakes, and freshly ground black pepper. Mix all the ingredients well.
- Rub the mixture on both sides of the fish as well as inside the cuts. Rub the mixture also inside the fish cavity. Set it aside for 5 to 6 hours for marination.
Steaming Setup
- Take a large cooking pot or large wok with a lid. Place a steaming rack or any metal stand inside the pot. It should be tall enough so that the boiling water does not reach the fish.
How to Steam Whole Fish
- To steam the whole fish, I used a large enough strainer plate to place the fish on it. Lay the green onion or scallions (sliced vertically) on the plate. Now place some sliced pieces of capsicum, 3 to 4 cloves of garlic, and one-inch piece of ginger (sliced into 3 to 4 pieces).
- Now place fish on them. Stuff the cavity of fish with two fresh green chilies, a few pieces of ginger, and garlic. Next, pour one liter of water into the pot. keep the flame medium to high.
- Now place the fish on the steaming rack. Put some butter on the fish. You can pour desi ghee as a substitute but butter gives a nice taste to the steamed fish.
- When the water comes to a boil, cover the pot with its lid. Put some weight over the lid to hold maximum steam inside. It will take 25 to 30 minutes to steam the fish.
Preparing the Sauce
- In a frying pan, pour 1 tbsp cooking oil. Heat the oil lightly. Put garlic paste into it. Fry it light brown on a very low flame. Don’t fry it dark brown.
- Add diced carrots to it. Fry it for 1 minute. Now add diced capsicum and fry it for half a minute. Next season it with salt and white pepper powder or black pepper powder. White pepper powder gives a nice taste.
- Next, add orange juice to it.
- Add chopped green part of one or two scallions to the sauce.
- When the sauce comes to a bubble, add sugar to it. Don’t over-boil the sauce. When the sugar is dissolved, add cornflour slurry to thicken the sauce. Add the slurry gradually with stirring to prepare the lumps-free sauce.Cook the cornflour slurry for half a minute at least and continue till you get the sauce of desired consistency. If you feel the sauce got thicker, add more orange juice to it.
Serving the Steamed Whole Fish
- Almost after 30 minutes, remove the weight from the lid. You will see the steamed fish is ready to serve. You may check the doneness with the butter knife. Shift the steamed fish to the serving dish. Serve it hot with orange-veggies sauce.
Video
Notes
If you haven't any large pot readily available with you, you may cut the fish into large pieces to accommodate the fish easily inside the available cooking pot.