This vibrant dish is blissfully easy. Nutty, hot, fragrant, mouth-numbing and addictively salty-sweet, the sauce dresses the clean taste of the white fish and greens beautifully. You’ll want lots of rice alongside to soak up all those flavours.
Steamed fish with Sichuan sauce and greens
Prep 10 min
Cook 20 min
Serves 2
1 big thumb of ginger, peeled and cut into matchsticks
2 large white fish fillets (such as cod or bream)
2 spring onions, trimmed and sliced diagonally
4 small pak choi
2 tbsp vegetable oil
For the sauce
1 star anise, bashed into small pieces
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp chilli oil, such as Lee Kum Kee’s Chiu Chow
1 tsp sesame oil
Set a large steamer over a pan of simmering water. Take a plate that will fit inside the steamer (or a sheet of foil), sprinkle it with half the ginger and lay the fish on top. Cover with the rest of the ginger, then sit the plate in the steamer over the simmering water. Cover and cook for 10-12 minutes (depending on the size of the fish), until just tender.
Meanwhile, gently warm the sauce ingredients in a small pan, stirring until the sugar dissolves, then keep warm.
Lift the fish plate out of the steamer, put the pak choi in its place and steam for three or four minutes, until just tender.
Keep the fish on the plate, but pour away any liquid that’s collected during cooking. Warm the vegetable oil in a very small pan until sizzling hot. Scatter the spring onions over the fish and, once the oil is very hot, pour it over the top.
Transfer the fish to plates with the cooked pak choi, spoon over the soy and chilli sauce, and serve immediately.
The simple flex …
This sauce works equally well on chunks of steamed turnip or celeriac, alongside the greens and sticky rice. It is a lovely match of flavours.
UK readers: click to buy these ingredients from Ocado
