Steamed Tilapia Chinese-Viet Style – Cá Rô Phi Hấp Hành Gừng

My recipe for spicy steamed tilapia is a merge of Vietnamese and Chinese style. My friend, Liang Hou, originally from Beijing, introduced me to Lee Kum Kee Soy Sauce for Seafood and I got hooked on it ever since.Revised: 3/11/2017

I recreated the pictorial to show my full version of how I make this steamed tilapia. You can steam it simply without the bean thread and black fungus to give the fish texture more flavor. The bean thread sucks up the sauce so it may be salty but we don’t eat the noodles by itself, but together with a bit of rice and fish to balance out the taste in each bit

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1 medium/large tilapia (about 2 to 2.5 lb)
1 bunch of scallion
1 chunky piece of ginger (about 3 inch long)
pinch of salt (less than 1/8 tsp)
1 tsp minced garlic (optional)
black pepper to taste
1 tsp Huy Phong’s sriracha
3-4 Tbsp Lee Kum Kee’s Seafood Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Viet Huong fish sauce
*1 pouch of bean thread or glass noodles
3-5 pieces of black fungus (woodear)

Direction:

1. Scale, clean, and gut the tilapia. Cut fish in half IF it doesn’t fit into the steamer. Rub the fish with a pinch of salt. Set aside. My edited full version used a smaller fish so I didn’t need to cut it in half this time. Cut a slit on the fish body on both sides.

2. Soak the bean thread and black fungus in luke warm water separately for about 10 minutes.

3. Julienne the black fungus and ginger root (slicing it into thin strips). Chop the scallions into short 1-inch lengths. Layer a deep dish with the bean thread, half portion of scallion, and black fungus. Mix the soy sauce, fish sauce, black pepper, spriracha, and minced garlic together in a little bowl.

4. Next, put the fish on the next layer. Then add the remaining ingredients on top. Remember to stuff the belly with ginger and scallion too.

5. Drizzle the soy sauce mixture over the fish.

6. I filled the base of my steamer with water about 3 inches high. Steam on high for 20 minutes.

Enjoy! This steamed tilapia is great with steamed rice and a side of vegetables. This time, I ate it with my homemade Korean radish and cabbage kim chi. Check out my pictorial recipe for radish kim chi here.

Enjoy! This steamed tilapia is great with steamed rice and a side of vegetables. This time, I ate it with my homemade Korean radish and cabbage kim chi.