This is my North American adaptation of an Australian take on a traditional Vietnamese technique for doing steamed fish, cá hấp. It’s great, though I won’t even begin to pretend this is authentic, or that I know anything about the cultural context.

It works with any firm-fleshed white fish that isn’t too lean. I’ve done it with striped bass, but I wouldn’t use something like salmon.

Ingredients

Sauce

  • 80 g shaoxing wine
  • 50 g oyster sauce
  • 30 g soy sauce
  • 25 g sesame oil

Garlic oil

  • 100 g sunflower oil
  • 50 g garlic cloves, finely minced

Final dish

  • 100 g dried glass noodles
  • 30 g dried wood ear mushrooms (also often called “fungus”)
  • 1 whole fish (ca. 800 g, see headnote), gutted, scaled, and cleaned, fins removed
  • 70 g ginger, peeled and julienned
  • 3 scallions, whites finely sliced and greens thinly sliced lengthways
  • Cilantro

Method

For the sauce

Combine all the ingredients in a small container and set it aside.

For the garlic oil

Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan. Set it aside until just before serving.

For the fish

Fill two medium bowls with lukewarm (ca. 20 °C) water. Place the dried wood ear mushrooms and glass noodles into the two prepared bowls.

Preheat an oven to 200 °C (400 °F).

Rough up a sheet of parchment paper for extra pliability. Then layer that on top of a sheet of aluminum foil, and place the parchment-foil onto a large baking tray.

Cut 2-3 incisions on each side of the fish, and stuff the cuts with the ginger and scallion whites. Place the prepared fish onto the parchment-foil sheet on the baking tray.

Drain the re-hydrated wood ear mushrooms. Slice them into strips, and then layer them on top of the fish.

Begin to roll up the parchment-foil to start creating a parcel. Then pour in the prepared sauce.

Tightly seal the parchment-foil around the fish. Then transfer the baking tray to the preheated oven.

Let the fish steam in the oven until it’s cooked, about an hour. The fish should be opaque but still springy, and flake nicely.

When the fish is cooked, drain the glass noodles, open the parchment-foil parcel, and add the drained noodles on top of the fish. Then re-seal the parcel to finish cooking the noodles while you prepare the finishing oil.

Heat the prepared garlic oil and heat the pan until the garlic begins to bubble and then lightly brown.

Open the fish parcel, and add the scallion greens and a big handful of cilantro. Pour over the hot garlic oil.

Serve immediately.