DIRECTIONS

PREPARE (Overnight; 10 mins)

COOK (15 mins)

1. Bring water in steamer to a boil. Steam fish over high heat for ~approx 6 minutes, depending on your fish size (See Note 2).
2. While the fish is steaming, heat sauce in a pot (bring to a boil). Fry chopped garlic while steaming too. Fry until golden brown, don’t burn them.
3. For best results, cook fish until it is almost done, then remove the steamer from the stove. The meat still has a tinge of red but the meat comes off the bone easily with chopsticks or a fork. (See Note 2)
4. Remove fish from steamer and placed it on a plate without the steaming liquid.
5. Add a dash of pepper and drizzle sauce over the fish.
6. Garnish: Pour the garlic oil, fried garlic pieces and spring onions over the fish.
7. Let it rest for about 1-2 minutes before serving.

Note 1: Purpose of ginger (sometimes spring onions) under the plate is to provide ventilation to the underside of the fish and/or avoid the skin sticking on the plate. Definitely, gives a better flavour to the dish in whole.

Note 2: Principle of residual heat – a pan will continue to cook the food for several minutes when it is removed from the heat source. So be sure not to overcook your fish!

Undercooked – If the meat sticks to the bone.
Overcooked – the texture will be harder and not as tender as expected. Different fish size requires different steaming time. Fish must be in room temperature. An approximate:

400g Fish = 6 to 7 minutes
450g Fish = 7 to 8 minutes
500g Fish = 8 to 9 minutes
600g Fish = 9 to 10 minutes

If you are steaming a whole fish that has thicker body, you probably would want to steam it slightly longer, e.g. another minute or so.

  Recipe Inspired by annieliciousfood.blogspot.sg/2012/07/hong-kong-style-steamed-cod-fish.html