Beltfish is a long, silver ribbon of a fish with one central bone, which is why it gets steamed whole and served with almost nothing. The seasoning here is aromatics steeped in water rather than scattered on top, so the flesh takes the scent without sitting in a pool of liquid. A hot oil pour finishes it.
Jiangnan · Main
Steamed Beltfish With Scallion and Hot Oil
Beltfish needs almost nothing: a twenty-minute soak in ginger and pepper water, eight minutes of hard steam, then scallion and smoking oil poured over the top.
- Prep35 min
- Cook10 min
- Serves3
- LevelEasy
Ingredients
| 2 | beltfish , about 500 g each |
| 20 g | scallion |
| 4 slices | ginger |
| 5 g | Sichuan pepper |
| 1 tbsp | Shaoxing wine |
| 1 tsp | ground black pepper |
| 2 tsp | salt |
| 1 tbsp | neutral oil |
| 2 tbsp | seasoned soy sauce |
Method
- Trim the head and tail from the fish, pull out the gills and innards, and rinse the cavity until the water runs clear. Dry the skin.
- Steep the sliced scallion, ginger and Sichuan pepper in 100 ml water for 10 minutes, then strain and discard the solids.
- Lay the fish in the strained liquid with the wine, black pepper and salt, and leave it for 20 minutes.
- Lift the fish onto a heatproof plate and steam over fast boiling water for 8 minutes.
- Pour off the liquid that collects on the plate, then scatter chives over the fish.
- Heat the oil until it smokes and pour it over the chives, then spoon the soy around the fish.
Notes
- Eight minutes suits a fish of about 500 g. Past that the flesh goes dry and stringy, so check the bone at the thickest point.
- Steeping rather than sprinkling is what keeps the plate dry. A wet plate dilutes the soy and the skin goes flabby.
- The oil has to be at the smoking point. Warm oil over raw chives tastes of grass.
Ratios and technique checked against 家和万事兴顺顺顺 on Douguo (清蒸带鱼). The method here is written by Stellaok and the illustration is ours; no text or photograph from the source is reproduced.