Steamed Pampano – Chinese Restaurant DIY Recipe (w/ Step by Step instructions)

OMG. My mom took up Chinese cooking classes and it has elevated her cooking to the next level. Her best dish (at the moment) is her Steamed Pampano, hence why I made sure to ask her to teach me how to cook this yummy dish. Trust me, this is a guaranteed crowd pleaser, even able to please nitpicky grandparents. My grandfather actually asked me how I cooked it because it was so good!!! Wow, just typing that out put a grin on my face.

 

DELECTABLE DISH FOR THE DAY: CHINESE STEAMED PAMPANO

DIFFICULTY: Easy

SERVING SIZE: Good for 5 people

COOK TIME: 30 minutes

 

INGREDIENTS FOR CHINESE STEAMED PAMPANO

• 500g pampano
• 1 tsp rice wine
• 2 slices ginger
• 2 stalk onion leeks
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp Knorr / Maggi seasoning
• 2 tbsp sesame oil

 

STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS TO MAKE CHINESE STEAMED PAMPANO

• Use your hand or a toothbrush to clean out the blood on the pampano’s head and body. Cleaning these ensures that no fishy flavor or smell remains. Leave it to dry
• Place 1 tsp rice wine on your palm, and rub it across the fish. This also helps remove the foul odor from the fish, but do this sparingly.

• Score the fish vertically on both sides. Let it dry for a few minutes

• On the left side is the ginger and onion leeks would be what you stuff into the pampano. On the right side, that’s the amount of onion leeks to be used for the sauce

• Slice the ginger and onion leeks (green parts) diagonally.
• Stuff all the ginger and the onion leeks into the pampano stomach

• Boil water in a pan until you see it bubbling hard (leave it uncovered while this is happening). Once this starts, place the pampano on a glass dish and put it inside to steam. Cover for 15 minutes on high fire

• Once that’s done, uncover the pan and turn off the fire. You should see the fish fin standing straight up, that means the fish is extremely fresh.
• Once the pampano cools, remove the stuffed leeks and ginger inside the fish
• Next, it’s time to cook the sauce. Add oil to the sauce pan, put in the chopped onion leeks, and stir fry until fragrant. Transfer these cooked onion leeks on top of the fish.

• From the steamed pampano, you should have fish liquid on your glass dish, reserve these and transfer these onto the sauce pan. Add 2 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tsp Maggi seasoning, 1/2 tbsp sugar, and a bit of water (not more than the fish liquid). Let it boil and stir.

• Once it boils, pour over the fish.

• Using the same sauce pan, put in 2 tbsp sesame oil and boil. Once it boils, pour over the pampano and you should hear a hissing sound as it hits the fish
• Voila! Enjoy your beautiful steamed pampano.