Steamed Mackerel Fish with Salted Soy Beans

I usually called this Batang Fish, which we commonly see in our local fish soup scene. However for an entire steak cut liked such, I usually preferred it to be steamed over some salted soy beans. Some would probably love this deep or pan fried simply with some salt and there were readers who told me they enjoy this with turmeric as well. Regardless of any methods of cooking this fish, but the most common understanding is that this kind of Spanish Mackerel fish is a very versatile type of fish where you can enjoy it even with the simplest method of cooking.

For those who are not familiar with the term “Salted Soy Beans”, this is also called 豆酱 or 豆瓣酱 in Chinese. It’s actually fermented soy beans readily available from most supermarkets in bottles and of which is an ingredient very commonly use in Chinese cooking. And because it is very salty in nature, moderation has to be taken care of when using it. Because once you accidentally “spilled” a bit too much into your food, it gets real salty and would probably just ruin the whole dish.

Batang or Mackerel fish is generally quite inexpensive, comes with little bones for such steak cut and taste pretty good (at least to me), so much so that this is used very often in my cooking. The fried ginger shreds used in this dish added a good bout of flavours and enhance the dish greatly too. So gonna include this in my list of favourite fish recipes which I’m currently compiling. Hope you will like it too !

And for those based in Melbourne Australia, feel free to hop onto Asian grocery online to shop for all the groceries you need for the recipe.

Steamed Mackerel Fish with Salted Soy Beans

Recipe by Eat What TonightCourse: MainCuisine: ChineseDifficulty: Easy

Servings

2

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

15

minutes

Ingredients

• 1 slice of batang fish steak, approx 150-200g

• 1 chilli padi, diced

• 2 tsp salted soya beans

• 2-3 tbsp cooking oil

• 6-7 pcs of thick ginger slices

• 1 heaping tbsp of shredded ginger

  
  

Directions

• Place ginger slices and white parts of spring onion onto steaming plate. Place fish on top.
• Spread salted soy beans and chilli padi on top of the fish.
• Cover steam plate with heat-proof clingwrap and poke holes all over.
• Steam fish in wok over medium-high heat for approx. 12-15mins.
• In the meantime, heat up cooking oil in another pan and panfry ginger shreds till they are brown and crispy.
• Drain and set aside the ginger oil.
• When fish is done, drizzle the ginger oil over the fish and garnish with the fried ginger shreds and green parts of spring onion. Serve hot immediately and enjoy !