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Home-style Chinese steamed sea bass

By: Amy Poon

Published: 30 Jan 24
Updated: 25 Mar 24

Eating fish at Chinese New Year is a must, and this home-style sea bass recipe comes from Amy Poon of Poon’s London, a family food business producing top-quality Chinese sauces, oils and dressings.

Amy says: “Everyone knows about whole steamed fish with spring onion and ginger, which is wonderful, but this dish is a classic example of home-style Chinese cooking. It includes typical Chinese storecupboard staples such as wood ear mushrooms, red dates and goji berries. I love to cook turbot this way, but it’s expensive and large. Sea bass is excellent too, as it’s forgiving and the meaty texture works so well with the mushrooms.”

If you can’t find all the special Chinese flavourings at the top of the ingredients list, don’t worry. Even if you’re missing one or two, the dish will still taste great.

Make this recipe as part of Amy’s home-style menu, perfect for Chinese New Year.

Medium
February 2024

Test kitchen approved

Serves 2
Hands-on time 30 min, plus 30 min soaking

Eating fish at Chinese New Year is a must, and this home-style sea bass recipe comes from Amy Poon of Poon’s London, a family food business producing top-quality Chinese sauces, oils and dressings.

If you can’t find all the special Chinese flavourings at the top of the ingredients list, don’t worry. Even if you’re missing one or two, the dish will still taste great.

Make this recipe as part of Amy’s home-style menu, perfect for Chinese New Year.

Dairy-free recipes

Nutrition: Per serving

Calories: 586kcals
Fat: 35g (3.6g saturated)
Protein: 37g
Carbohydrates: 28g (17g sugars)
Fibre: 2.6g
Salt: 4.1g

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Ingredients

Small handful dried wood ear mushrooms
Small handful dried shiitake mushrooms
8 dried lily flowers
3 red dates (jujube)
1 tbsp goji berries
Postage stamp-size piece dried tangerine peel (or mandarin orange peel)
3 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp shaoxing wine
Pinch white pepper
½ tsp sugar
½ tsp potato starch or cornflour
4 tbsp vegetable oil
4 spring onions
1 sea bass, about 500g, scaled and gutted
Thumb-size piece ginger
Small handful coriander, roughly chopped

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Method

Rinse the mushrooms, lily flowers, red dates, goji berries and tangerine peel, then put them in a large bowl and cover with warm water. Leave for half an hour until soft. Drain, then slice the mushrooms (removing the stalks from the shiitake), tie the lily flowers into knots, thinly slice and remove the stones from the dates and cut the tangerine peel into very fine matchsticks. Put them all in a bowl, then add the soy sauce, sesame oil, shaoxing wine, white pepper, sugar, potato starch/cornflour and 1 tbsp vegetable oil. Mix well.
Cut 3 of the spring onions in half to create 6 pieces, then put 5 of these on a heatproof plate big enough to hold the fish. Lay the fish on top (so the spring onions act as a trivet and allow the steam to circulate around the fish properly), then put the final spring onion half inside the cavity. Cut 2 slices off the piece of ginger and put them inside the cavity too. Cut the remaining ginger and the final spring onion into matchsticks.
Put a large steamer over a pan of simmering water or put a wire rack in a large wok or pan filled with simmering water. Pour the marinated dried ingredients over the fish, piling all the solids up. Put the fish plate in the steamer/wok, then cover and steam over a high heat for 8-10 minutes.

Heat the remaining 3 tbsp oil in a small pan until smoking hot. When the fish is cooked, carefully lift out the plate (wear oven gloves). Pile the spring onion matchsticks and ginger matchsticks on top, then the coriander. Pour the hot oil all over the fish – it should vigorously sizzle and give off a fragrant aroma. Serve.