Steamed whole fish with black bean sauce

November 19, 2009 • Hello. I am currently out of the country and unable to respond to comments and e-mails. Rest assured, however, that future posts have been scheduled so new recipes will go live almost everyday during my absence. I'll be back soon with lots of stories and photos. Ciao for now! ~ Connie

Inspired by a steamed fish cooked in an episode of Food Safari. You may use any white, firm, fleshy fish to make this simple dish; I used a large pompano for my version.

fish-black-bean-sauce-17

Serves 3.

Ingredients:

  • 1 whole pompano, about 700 grams
  • 2 tbsps. of black bean sauce
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • a thumb-sized piece of ginger
  • a small bunch of onion leaves
  • half of a small carrot
  • 2 tbsps. of sesame seed oil
  • 1/4 lemon

Lay the fish flat and make two to three diagonal incisions about half an inch deep. Turn the fish over and make incisions on the opposite side as well.

Spread a tablespoonful of black bean sauce on one side of the fish. Take a heat proof plate and lay the fish on it, the side with the black bean sauce facing down. Take another tablespoonful of black bean sauce and spread on the top side of the fish.

Take a thumb-sized piece of ginger and peel. You will also need two cloves of garlic. Crush the garlic cloves, discard the skins and slice as thinly as you can. Slice the ginger as thinly as you can manage then pile the slices of ginger and cut into thin, thin slivers.

Scatter the garlic and ginger all over the fish. For best results, stuff some of the ginger and garlic into the cavity.

If you have a bamboo steamer large enough to hold the plate, use it. Otherwise, just take a large pan (a wok is good) and pour in about 4 cups of water. Place a heatproof bowl in the water and arrange the plate on top of the bowl. The bowl makes sure that the plate is far enough from the water so that none splatters on the fish. Steam the fish for 30 minutes.

About 10 minutes before the fish is done, start preparing the garnish. Take a small bunch of onion leaves and cut into 2-inch lengths. Arrange the cut onion leaves in a single layer and slice lengthwise as closely as you can so that you have super thin strips of onion leaves. Take a small piece of carrot, cut into thin slices, pile one on top of the other and cut into thin slivers.

When the fish is done, scatter the carrot strips and onion leaves on top. You can choose to transfer the fish to a clean dish if you don’t want to serve it with the juices.

Heat the sesame seed oil until smoking then pour all over the fish.

Squeeze a quarter of a lemon over the fish and serve the steamed fish by itself or with hot rice.

Below, the step-by-step version of the recipe.

February 19, 2009  Print This Post   
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Comments

4 Responses to “Steamed whole fish with black bean sauce”
  1. Cindy A. says:
    February 21, 2009 at 7:51 am

    Greetings from Southern California!
    Hi Ms. Connie,
    I have been a silent lurker of your website for many years now and I kept coming back for more of your appetizing recipes.
    Oh, I like also how you use images step by step to show your cooking on Feast Asia. It’s a lot easier to follow than just words. Keep up the good work and keep posting those delicious recipes and other interesting topics/ideas you have.

    Reply
  2. Gay says:
    February 21, 2009 at 7:54 pm

    I like the sound of the black bean sauce, I’ll try this one. Lots of fish here in Gensan… I’m sure this will be great!

    Reply
  3. aida says:
    September 3, 2009 at 10:53 am

    hi connie,

    every time my 19 y/o young kid wants some filipino
    dish …he goes to your web site .

    this steam fish he ordered me to make for him
    last weekend.

    naubus lahat. ill make two next time.

    thank you so much …!!!!!

    Reply

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Some related discussions...
  1. What’s new in Feast Asia? | Asian cooking | Home-cooking rocks! says:
    March 2, 2009 at 6:55 pm

    [...] today’s lunch — steamed whole fish with black bean sauce. I saw it on TV, it looked delicious and I decided I was going to make my own version. And I did. [...]

    Reply


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