The Art of Steaming Fresh Fish: A Chinese Cooking Tradition

When it comes to cooking fish, China is renowned for its emphasis on freshness. This philosophy is reflected in the way the seafood supply chain is structured, with live fish available at restaurants, supermarkets, and markets alike. When preparing fish at home, it's essential to have access to the freshest ingredients possible. In this article, we'll explore the steps involved in killing and prepping a fresh sea bass, followed by steaming it to perfection.

Killing and Prepping the Fish

To start, you'll need a sharp heavy cleaver and some rubber fish gloves to prevent slipping. Killing a fish is surprisingly easy, but it's essential to work quickly and with confidence. To do this, simply give the fish a strong smack on the side of the head, followed by a whack above the eyes. This will stun the fish, and then you can flip it and deliver another blow to break the skull. Next, cut along the belly to remove the guts, which are quite bitter and can be unpleasant to eat. Be sure to get everything out, including any remaining bits from the little pocket under the belly.

To scale the fish, use a knife or one of those little fish scalers, which can be a bit tricky to work with but is essential for removing the scales. Scrub the sides of the fish, paying attention to the heads and fins, as these areas can harbor bacteria. Finally, rinse the fish under cold water to remove any remaining impurities.

Steaming the Fish

With your fish now completely prepped, it's time to steam it. Start by boiling some water in a large pot, then carefully place the fish into a plate or dish that allows for air circulation. The fish is too big to fit on a bamboo stick, so we'll use the plate method instead. To aid in even cooking and prevent the fish from drying out, cut up some spring onions and lay them over the middle of the fish.

While the water is boiling, prepare your sauce by mixing together 1/2 tablespoon of sugar, 5 tablespoons of boiling water, a teaspoon of stock concentrate, a touch of Lau gel or Shouting (which is a Chinese ingredient that adds umami flavor), and three tablespoons of light soy sauce. This sauce will serve as the base for your steamed fish sauce.

Once the water has reached its boiling point, add the prepared fish to the plate and cover it with a lid to trap the steam. Steam the fish on high heat for about four and a half minutes per pound, depending on the size of your fish. For this sea bass, we did five minutes to ensure it was cooked through.

Prepping the Garnish

While the fish is steaming, you can prepare a garnish using green onions. Simply julienne them finely, then toss them in ice-cold water to cause them to curl up naturally. A few minutes later, your fish will be done, and you'll know it's cooked by the eye, which should have popped out.

To finish, take off any excess water that the fish released during steaming and discard it. If you're serving this dish in a restaurant, you might want to reserve the liquid as a base for your steamed fish sauce, but for home cooking, it's best to just toss it. Smother the fish with some oil to give it a nice sheen and sizzle, then pour your prepared steamed fish soy sauce around the plate.

The Result: A Flaky and Delicious Steamed Fish

When you take that first bite of this steamed sea bass, you'll be amazed at how flaky and delicious it is. The freshness of the ingredients shines through in every bite, making this dish a true standout. Whether you're a seasoned chef or just starting to explore Chinese cooking, this recipe is sure to become a favorite. So go ahead and give it a try – with the right tools and a bit of practice, you'll be steaming like a pro in no time.

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"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: entoday we wanted to show you one of the world's great ways to eat a super fresh fish whole steamed fish with soy sauce Japan's Got sashimi Latin America's Got ceviche and China's got whole steamed fish see if you've eaten fish at a restaurant in China you know that this is a cuisine that values freshness they often have live fish swimming around in fish tanks you choose your fish and they'll kill it on the spot and steam it but it's not just restaurants the supermarket's have live fish the markets have live fish the whole seafood supply chain is built around freshness so when you're making this dish yourself at home you want the freshest fish you can get and it's not really physically possible to get any fresher than what we've got here today so I'm going to show you how to kill and prep this fish here which is a kind of sea bass make sure you've got a sharp heavy cleaver and some rubber fish gloves because fish can get quite slippery killing a fish is really quite easy but you're still going to want to work quickly and with confidence so take your fish give it a strong smack on the side of the head and now it's stunned so flip it and give it a good whack above the eyes that's the skull break and that's it now to prep it cut along the belly and get the guts out the guts are quite bitter so make sure that you do a good job getting everything that's in that little pocket from the belly cut to the spine also right below the cheek there's the gills which you're going to want to cut out with a knife to scale the thing this can get a bit messy so we've moved to the bathroom you're probably going to want one of these little fish scalers because working with is like the back of the knife can be a real pain scrub the sides of the fish being sure to get the heads and also behind the fins and now with a fish totally prep just check out how fresh this fish looks look at how clear the eye is this isn't just a different dish than a frozen fillet it's like a whole different category of food so start boiling some water and put your fish in a big plate to steam because fish is a bit too big to go on a bamboo stick we don't really have much of a choice but to use the plate method here to aid in air circulation then put some spring onion on the plate below the middle of the fish this will make sure that the fish cooks evenly and because we actually want to taste the fish we're not going to do much to see than this besides cut up a couple inches of ginger and laying them over the fish once the water is almost boiling we can prep our sauce toss 1/2 a tablespoon of sugar in a small bowl and then get 5 tablespoons of the boiling water and give it a mix to dissolve the sugar into it then put in about a teaspoon of stock concentrate a touch of Lau gel or shouting three tablespoons of light soy sauce about a teaspoon of sesame oil and give that a nice mix and that's it for the sauce so now our water should be boiling so just put in your fish plate there's no real tricks here this is just going to steam on high for about four and a half minutes per pound of fish so for this size fish we did five minutes so one of that steaming we can prep some green onion curls for a garnish to curl up some green onion all you need to do is julienne them real fine then toss them in ice cold water and then they'll just naturally curl right up and a couple minutes later our fish is done and you can tell it's done from the eye which has already popped out now take out any water that the fishes release while steaming and just dump it out I think some people say that this liquid should like form the base for the steamed fish sauce which is completely bonkers that liquid is about as bitter as bile taking off your ginger and green onion you're going to see some broken skin but don't panic that's a good thing it means that your fish was fresh if you're at a restaurant and the skin hasn't broken like this you'll know that they were actually using frozen fish so just toss that popped I back in and smother it on a bunch of those green onion curls to look all pretty last step take some oil and get a piping hot pour the oil all over the fish so that it sizzles and gets a real nice sheen on it then you're going to drain out the oil pour our steamed fish soy sauce around the fish and we're done a whole steamed fish from scratch this fish is just so absurdly flaky and delicious I really hope you give this one a try as always subscribe for more Chinese cooking videos and for a detailed recipe click through to the reddit link in the description and also if you're interested in random food and cooking tidbits check out Steph on Instagram or me on Twittertoday we wanted to show you one of the world's great ways to eat a super fresh fish whole steamed fish with soy sauce Japan's Got sashimi Latin America's Got ceviche and China's got whole steamed fish see if you've eaten fish at a restaurant in China you know that this is a cuisine that values freshness they often have live fish swimming around in fish tanks you choose your fish and they'll kill it on the spot and steam it but it's not just restaurants the supermarket's have live fish the markets have live fish the whole seafood supply chain is built around freshness so when you're making this dish yourself at home you want the freshest fish you can get and it's not really physically possible to get any fresher than what we've got here today so I'm going to show you how to kill and prep this fish here which is a kind of sea bass make sure you've got a sharp heavy cleaver and some rubber fish gloves because fish can get quite slippery killing a fish is really quite easy but you're still going to want to work quickly and with confidence so take your fish give it a strong smack on the side of the head and now it's stunned so flip it and give it a good whack above the eyes that's the skull break and that's it now to prep it cut along the belly and get the guts out the guts are quite bitter so make sure that you do a good job getting everything that's in that little pocket from the belly cut to the spine also right below the cheek there's the gills which you're going to want to cut out with a knife to scale the thing this can get a bit messy so we've moved to the bathroom you're probably going to want one of these little fish scalers because working with is like the back of the knife can be a real pain scrub the sides of the fish being sure to get the heads and also behind the fins and now with a fish totally prep just check out how fresh this fish looks look at how clear the eye is this isn't just a different dish than a frozen fillet it's like a whole different category of food so start boiling some water and put your fish in a big plate to steam because fish is a bit too big to go on a bamboo stick we don't really have much of a choice but to use the plate method here to aid in air circulation then put some spring onion on the plate below the middle of the fish this will make sure that the fish cooks evenly and because we actually want to taste the fish we're not going to do much to see than this besides cut up a couple inches of ginger and laying them over the fish once the water is almost boiling we can prep our sauce toss 1/2 a tablespoon of sugar in a small bowl and then get 5 tablespoons of the boiling water and give it a mix to dissolve the sugar into it then put in about a teaspoon of stock concentrate a touch of Lau gel or shouting three tablespoons of light soy sauce about a teaspoon of sesame oil and give that a nice mix and that's it for the sauce so now our water should be boiling so just put in your fish plate there's no real tricks here this is just going to steam on high for about four and a half minutes per pound of fish so for this size fish we did five minutes so one of that steaming we can prep some green onion curls for a garnish to curl up some green onion all you need to do is julienne them real fine then toss them in ice cold water and then they'll just naturally curl right up and a couple minutes later our fish is done and you can tell it's done from the eye which has already popped out now take out any water that the fishes release while steaming and just dump it out I think some people say that this liquid should like form the base for the steamed fish sauce which is completely bonkers that liquid is about as bitter as bile taking off your ginger and green onion you're going to see some broken skin but don't panic that's a good thing it means that your fish was fresh if you're at a restaurant and the skin hasn't broken like this you'll know that they were actually using frozen fish so just toss that popped I back in and smother it on a bunch of those green onion curls to look all pretty last step take some oil and get a piping hot pour the oil all over the fish so that it sizzles and gets a real nice sheen on it then you're going to drain out the oil pour our steamed fish soy sauce around the fish and we're done a whole steamed fish from scratch this fish is just so absurdly flaky and delicious I really hope you give this one a try as always subscribe for more Chinese cooking videos and for a detailed recipe click through to the reddit link in the description and also if you're interested in random food and cooking tidbits check out Steph on Instagram or me on Twitter\n"