Steamed Sea Bass

Ingredients

• 1 whole fish sea bass
• 3 roots spring onion
• 1 block ginger
• 10–15 ml cooking oil
• 10–15 ml steaming fish soy sauce
• 10–15 ml rice wine
• 5–10 g salt

Method

Scale the sea bass whole — it steams more evenly than filleted fish, and the skin holds the delicate flesh together during steaming. Gut and clean it thoroughly, then pat dry with kitchen paper; moisture on the surface prevents browning and concentrates flavour unevenly. Score both flanks with three or four shallow diagonal cuts about 5 mm deep. Rinse the cavity with salt water to strip the mucous membrane, which turns gamey during cooking. Salt the fish inside and out — roughly 5 g distributed through the cavity, 5 g across both surfaces — and leave it for at least 10 minutes. This draws out excess moisture and firms the flesh, so it won't collapse into mush over the heat.

Prepare two aromatic components in parallel. Slice ginger thinly — aim for coin-thin, about 2 mm — and julienne the white parts of the spring onions into 3 cm lengths. Blanch the julienned greens in iced water for 3 minutes to crisp them and remove the raw bite; they're for finish, not cooking. Stuff half the white spring onion and half the ginger into the fish cavity. Scatter the rest over the body, pressing gently so they nestle into the scoring. The ginger and alliums dissolve slightly into the steaming liquid, infusing it with their volatile oils and creating a subtle, savoury base that seasons the flesh from within.

Elevate the fish on a steaming plate set over two chopsticks or a trivet so it sits 1 cm above any pooled liquid. Water that touches the fish skin makes it taste waterlogged rather than delicate. Bring the steamer to a rolling boil — you need constant, aggressive steam to cook the fish through without drying it — and place the fish in. Steam for 10–12 minutes, depending on thickness; a 600 g fish cooks through when the flesh at the thickest point (just behind the gills) flakes cleanly when tested with a fork and shows no translucency.

Slide the fish onto a clean, heated plate. Remove the spent ginger and spring onion from the surface and discard. Pour 10–15 ml of steaming fish-and-seafood soy sauce over the fillet. Scatter the reserved julienned ginger and spring onion greens across the top. Heat 10 ml of neutral oil until it smokes visibly, then pour it over the aromatics in a thin stream. The hot oil opens the essential oils in the ginger and ginger greens and carries their heat through the dish in one sharp, finishing gesture. Serve at once, before the aromatics lose their snap.