Cantonese Cuisine · FFET10181
Steamed sea bass
A whole sea bass steamed on a plate, topped with ginger, scallion and cilantro, and finished with hot oil and seasoned soy sauce.
A wide, shallow, round white porcelain plate holds a whole gray sea bass in brown seasoned soy sauce with a glossy oil layer, topped with ginger, green scallion and cilantro, with wooden chopsticks resting beside the plate.
The regional cooking of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau, prized for live, fresh ingredients and light flavours.
Steamed sea bass is a dish of a whole sea bass or a similar white fish steamed on a plate, topped with ginger, scallion and cilantro, and finished with hot oil and seasoned soy sauce. Steamed fish with these aromatics can be broadly placed in Cantonese cuisine, is often served late in a wedding banquet and is also made at home. This classification comes from a caption without a date or mention of sea bass; no dated record of steamed sea bass itself was found.
What
Sea bass, or a similar white fish, is steamed plain on a plate, the liquid on the plate is poured off, ginger, scallion and cilantro go on top, and hot oil and seasoned soy sauce are poured over. The two versions use fillets or a whole sea bass; both allow sea bass.2,4
When
The dish's date remains unestablished. The sliced-perch anecdote in the Shijian chapter of Shishuo Xinyu concerns raw fish, so it provides only background on perch being prized in the south and cannot date steamed fish.3
Where
Steamed fish with ginger, scallion and cilantro can be broadly placed in Cantonese cuisine, but this classification comes from a caption without a date or mention of sea bass, and no particular town is identified. This kind of steamed fish is a traditional dish often served late in a Chinese wedding banquet and is also made at home.1,2,4
How
Fillets are steamed on a plate for 7 to 10 minutes and a whole sea bass of 680 g for about 9 minutes; the cloudy liquid is then poured off, ginger, scallion and cilantro are laid on top, and sizzling oil and seasoned soy sauce are poured over. During steaming, steam condenses and drips away without returning to the fish.1,2,4
Why
The reasoning is not explicitly explained. Both versions pour off the liquid on the plate after steaming, then add soy sauce and hot oil instead of seasoning the fish before steaming.2,4
Impact and influence
No output figure, restaurant count or intangible heritage listing was found for steamed sea bass.1,2,3,4
No tale about this food has been found.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is my simplified home version of steamed sea bass in the Cantonese way, with no seasoning before steaming. I drew on two published recipes, both by the recipe author Bill Leung, one for fillets and one for a whole fish; the amounts follow his whole-fish recipe, and the steaming time is his roughly 9 minutes, which I also check with a chopstick.
Ingredients
- Sea bass 1 whole fish, about 680 g, scaled, gutted and rinsed
- Ginger 30 g, cut into thin strips
- Scallions 2, cut into thin strips
- Cilantro 8 sprigs
- Light soy sauce 60 ml
- Water, for the sauce 60 ml
- Sugar about 3 g
- Salt about 1 g
- White pepper a pinch
- Cooking oil 90 ml
Steps
- Pat the fish dry inside and out and set it on a deep plate that fits in your steamer, with two chopsticks under it so the steam can pass beneath.
- Bring the water in the steamer to a boil, put in the fish, cover, and steam over high heat for about 9 minutes. I poke the thickest part with a chopstick, and the fish is done when the flesh is opaque white and lifts easily away from the bone; if not, I steam it another minute or two.
- While the fish steams, put the soy sauce, water, sugar, salt and white pepper in a small pot, bring to a boil, and turn off the heat.
- When the fish is done, carefully pour off the cloudy liquid on the plate and lay the ginger, scallion and cilantro over the fish.
- Heat the oil until it just begins to smoke, turn off the heat, and pour it carefully over the ginger and scallion, where it will sizzle; keep your arm well back. Then pour the seasoned soy sauce around the edge of the plate and serve at once.
Tips
- I do not season the fish before steaming and add the soy sauce afterward, as both recipes do.
- When the fish is on the thick side I steam it a minute or two longer and check beside the bone again; this is my own habit.
Allergens: fish, soy, wheat