Chinese New Year is just around the corner. I look forward to it every year, and even though this year may look a little different thanks to the pandemic, we will still celebrate with some great food! I can guarantee that Chris will whip up some of his favorite dishes, including his famous steamed fish with ginger and scallions.

He was able to catch some fish this weekend, so we decided to document the process of making this special dish!

For the recipe below, we used fresh black bass, but this recipe would work great with flounder or other white fish. To steam the fish, we used a wok, a steaming rack and a lid to hold in the steam. If you don’t have a wok, you can use a large pot with a lid instead. In a pinch, an empty tuna can can be used as a substitute for a steaming rack.

Chinese steamed fish with Ginger and Scallions

Ingredients:

Ingredients for steamed fish:

4 white fish fillets (black bass, flounder or other white fish)
7-8 stalks of green onions, or scallions (green portion of stalk only; reserve the bottom/white portion of stalk for the sauce/garnish noted below)
3-4” long piece of ginger root, peeled and thinly sliced; reserve 4-5 slices for the sauce and 1-2 slices for the garnish below)
1 teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons of rice cooking wine (also known as Shaosing/Shaoxing wine)

Ingredients for ginger and scallion sauce:

ginger, finely minced (from the 4-5 slices you reserved above)
white portions of green onion stalks (from reserved ingredients above), thinly cut lengthwise into “matchsticks” (save a few of these for garnish below)
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
2 Tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
4-5 Tablespoons seasoning sauce (Golden Mountain brand preferred)

Ingredients for garnish:

1-2 slices ginger, thinly cut into “matchsticks” (from the slices you reserved in fish ingredients above)
slices of green onion stalks you reserved from sauce ingredients above

Instructions:

Prepare your steaming set-up on a stovetop. We used a wok filled with a couple of inches of water, a steaming rack, a ceramic plate which fits the wok, and a lid to cover everything while steaming.
Cut the green onions and ginger as described in ingredients above. Be sure to reserve the green parts of the green onion stalks for the steamed fish and the white parts for the sauce and garnish. Also, be sure to reserve a few slices of ginger for the sauce and garnish.
Rinse the fish fillets with cold water and place them into a bowl or gallon-size ziplock bag. Pour the cooking wine over the top to help clean the fish.
Place the green portions of green onion stalks on a plate that is large enough for all of the fish fillets. Be sure this plate will fit in the wok or cooking pot! Layer on the slices of ginger next. Remove the fish from the bowl/bag and layer the fillets on top of the ginger and onions.
Sprinkle the fish fillets with salt and set aside.
Bring the water in the wok/pot to a boil.
Place the plate of fish on top of the steaming rack and cover with a plate. Allow the fish to steam for 15-20 minutes.
While the fish is steaming, prepare the sauce.
Heat the canola oil in a small skillet. Add the chopped ginger and sauté for 1-2 minutes. Add the thinly sliced green onions to the pan and allow to cook for 30 seconds or until soft. Add the sesame oil and seasoning sauce and cook for 1-2 minutes more, then remove from heat.
After the fish has steamed, move the cooked fillets to a clean plate.
Pour the sauce on top of the fish.
Garnish with a few of the remaining thinly sliced onions and ginger and serve.