November 17, 2022

Ginger-steamed fish and tofu with soy-scallion sauce

Say the title of the blog post 10 times fast.

jk.

My friend Jessie made steamed fish tofu and bok choy, so naturally I had to do the same. I love this because it’s basically the steamed fish with scallion hong shao sauce (sweet soy sauce) that my parents used to make but like… even easier because veggies are coming in here with the fish!

Jessie’s steamed tofu + fish

Per my dad, you don’t have to add the soy sauce but it’s my favorite part of the dish so it’s very much not optional for me. If you’re feeling lazy and don’t want to dirty another pan, I’d just add the scallions on top of the fish as well to steam (see, I gotchu!), and drizzle soy sauce on at the end.

I used Chilean sea bass because it was massively on sale at Whole Foods and felt approp ~treat myself~. I had gone into the store intending on getting some cod or alt reasonably priced flaky white fish.

Material-wise, all you need is a steamer basket setup of some kind. It can be a large bamboo steamer or one of these metal steamer trivets that can fit inside a large pot or wok.

I used:

  • 12 oz. Chilean sea bass, cut into 2 pieces (cod or alt white fish works to!) **in retrospect I wish did just 2, 4-oz. pieces of the sea bass because it’s such a rich fish that we can’t eat as much of it
  • 2 baby bok choy, de-ribbed (with chonky big boy bok choy, you can cut them into sections)
  • 1/3 block of leftover medium-firm tofu, sliced into squares
  • 4 slices of ginger, cut into matchsticks
  • 2 scallions, cut into ~3-inch wide pieces, slicing thick white pieces vertically
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 1 tbsp shaoxing wine
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • pinch of salt

To make:

  • place sliced tofu onto a plate and then layer the fish to go on top
  • season tops of the fish with a bit of salt
  • top the fish with ginger and shaoxing wine, steam for 2-5 minutes over medium heat (I did 5 minutes for the Chilean sea bass since it’s a thicker fish fillet)
  • layer in bok choy and steam for another 3 minutes (for thinner fishes, you can even add everything in at once — the reasoning for adding in bok choy later is so that it doesn’t steam for too long)
  • while fish is steaming, make the scallion-soy sauce by sautéing scallions in some oil over medium heat, then add in soy sauce, sugar, salt, water, and simmer for 2 minutes
  • fish is done when it’s no longer translucent and the center flakes off nicely
  • pour the sweet-scallion soy sauce over the fish to serve, you can even add some sesame oil if that’s your thing