Steamed fish with sweet and sour West Lake sauce. This recipe is perfect for celebrating the new year of the lunar calendar. In fact, the menus that Chinese families prepare for New Year’s dinner must always include a whole fish dish, as a symbol of prosperity and abundance. You can use fish such as sea bass and sea bream, which are cooked in boiling water or steamed and then seasoned with this delicious sweet and sour sauce.
I wanted to try to cook this fish together with 3 other traditional Chinese dishes, all at the same time in my VIVO Vapojet steamer, which allows you to cook up to 3 levels of food together, maintaining uniform cooking. Furthermore, from various tests carried out, I have also noticed that if you order the dishes with a little cunning, placing those that could give taste to others on the upper floors, you get foods that perfectly preserve their flavors and are not contaminated by rest of the content.
In the case of using all 3 levels, it is necessary to pay attention to the correct positioning of the metal plate to collect the water. In fact, it is usually positioned with the hole upwards, in correspondence with the button.
VIVO Vapojet | Electric instant steamer
- Instant steam: produces steam in less than 30 seconds
- Micro steam: micro-atomized steam for maximum delicacy and cooking uniformity
- 0% BPA: Constructed with quality materials – 304 steel and BPA-free plastics
- Efficient: you save water, energy and time
- Space-saving: foldable and can be placed on the wall to take up very little space
- High capacity: spacious and with two shelves
Recipe: Steamed fish with sweet and sour West Lake sauce
Ingredients (fish):
- 2 large white fish (sea bass or sea bream – about 500g each)
- 25g peeled ginger
- 1-2 spring onions
Ingredients (sauce):
- 250ml cooking water
- 6 Tbsp black rice vinegar
- 50g sugar
- 1.5 Tbsp of rice wine
- 2.5 Tbsp of soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp dark soy sauce
- A pinch of salt
- A pinch of pepper
- 3 Tbsp cornstarch + 3 Tbsp water
Directions:
- Start cleaning the fish, removing all intestines and gills. Lightly score the inside near the spine to remove all residual blood and rinse well.
- Then cut the peeled ginger into slices and the spring onions into segments. Place the fish on baking paper, stuff it with slices of ginger and spring onion both in the belly and on top.
- Now place it on a shelf of the steamer, surrounded with parchment paper. If you are using a multi-level steamer like mine and you are cooking other dishes together, I recommend that you place it on top, so that it does not give taste to the rest.
- Start for 12-15 minutes, depending on the size of the fish, and, in the meantime, prepare the sauce.
- Heat the water in a non-stick pan with the black rice vinegar, sugar, rice wine, light and dark soy sauce, salt and pepper. While it is about to boil, also add the cornstarch, mixed with the water first, so that it does not form lumps.
- In about a minute of boiling, the sauce should thicken and be ready. As soon as the fish is cooked, season it with the sauce and serve hot. At your choice, you can decide whether to remove the ginger and spring onion before seasoning, or keep them as a garnish on the dish.
