Better Not to Add Sugar to the Steamed Fish?

February 10, 2024 by soLing

Steamed whole fish with ginger, scallions, and soy sauce

Usually, I add sugar to the sauce that goes over steamed whole fish, but decided to try a recipe without this ingredient. At first, I wasn’t used to it, but with a minor adjustment to one item, I now have another sauce to rotate in for this dish!

Below are some links to more details, including photos:

My Story
Inspiring Recipe
- First Try
- Second Try
Continuous Improvement
Lesson for Dumber Self
Next Step for You

My Story

While I was perusing the fish section at the local supermarket, I saw flounder on sale, so I purchased one. Without a recipe specific for this fish, I went online to see what was enticing.

Inspiring Recipe

On Epicurious.com, I came across Steamed Whole Fish With Ginger, Scallions, and Soy. This recipe is from Charles Phan, an award-winning chef, restaurateur, and author.

First Try

Luckily, I had all the ingredients listed on the recipe that I wanted to include, so I didn’t have to make another trip to the market on the same day.

Ingredients to Use

The flounder that I bought was at a hefty 4.55 pounds, so I increased the rest of the ingredients to the amounts shown below:

7-inch by 1/2-inch combined pieces of fresh ginger, peeled and finely julienned
6 ounces + 1/3 teaspoon of light soy sauce
3 tablespoons + 1/8 teaspoon of rice wine
3 tablespoons + 1/8 teaspoon of water
4 scallions julienned
12 tablespoons + 3/4 teaspoon of avocado oil

As you may have noticed, I made some adjustments as follows:

Included whole scallions, instead of white and light green parts only, as I didn’t want to waste the dark green parts
Substituted canola oil with less avocado oil because that’s what I had at home and the proportionate amount (24 tablespoons + 3/4 teaspoon) looked like a lot
Skipped the cilantro sprigs since I didn’t want to buy a bunch just to use some of it

Lastly, I did use salt and freshly ground black pepper, but replaced the Kosher salt with sea salt based on the availability at home.

Soy sauce, rice wine, oil, salt, black pepper, scallion, ginger, and flounder

Steps to Prepare

Of the five steps in the recipe, I had to modify all of them except for one. In order to tailor to the space and equipment I had at home, I made the following changes:

Step 1 – Since I was going to steam the large fish in the oven, I placed it in a roasting plan, though I had forgotten to pat dry the fish after washing it.
Step 2 – Steaming in the oven doesn’t require water, so I skipped this step.
Step 3 – For the steaming process, I borrowed techniques from a recipe that had instructions on steaming a fish in the oven and another on making a tasty sauce.
- In summary, I steamed the fish in a foiled packet inside an oven preheated to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. When I poked a chopstick in the fish after 25 minutes, it did not come out cleanly, so I checked it every five minutes until I reached a total cooking time of 40 minutes before taking the pan out of the oven. This is a similar process I took for another fish.
Step 5 – Because I didn’t have a small sauté pan, I used a saucepan to heat the oil.

Julienned scallions and ginger on a white plate — Julienned scallions and ginger

Measuring cup of soy sauce mixed with rice wine and water — Cup of soy sauce mixed with rice wine and water

Fish topped with ginger on a foil-lined roasting pan

Steamed fish topped with scallions on a foil-lined roasting pan — Steamed fish topped with scallions

Time to Eat

Since this was probably one of the larger fish that I’ve ever steamed in the oven, I was a little nervous about trying it, wondering how the texture would be.

Oil and sauce added to steamed fish on a foil-lined roasting pan — Oil and sauce added to steamed fish

Recipe Rating

Below were the results of the recipe after the first try:

Number of Ingredients	Effort (Low🤏, Medium🤏🤏, High🤏🤏🤏)	Cost per Serving (<$2💰, $2-5💰💰, >$5💰💰💰)	Taste (Not for me🤔, Trying Again🙂, Eating Regularly😋)
9️⃣*	🤏	💰💰	🙂

*Including water

The flounder was too big for my family. Though it wasn’t overcooked, it might’ve been softer if steamed a couple minutes less. As for the sauce, I didn’t really like it because it was too salty and wasn’t sweet.