Steamed fish recipe is one of my go to weeknight dish – it’s quick, healthy and nutritious. I grew up eating Steamed Fish Teochew style almost every day, as mama is of Teochew descent. Teochew (or Chaozhou) people are native to the eastern Guangdong province of China and Teochew cuisine offers a lot of healthy steamed, stir-fried and braised dishes. Using whole fish with tomatoes, salted vegetables and salted plums, the flavours of Teochew Steamed Fish are savoury, sour, spicy and altogether very appetising.

I’ve been wanting to do a post on Steamed Fish for ages. You see, I always avoid buying whole fish as I don’t like eating the gill parts and fish head. Mama always clean out the whole fish that you wouldn’t even recognise what dish it is. Hence I felt it’s a waste to throw the edible parts away, so I usually buy only fish cutlets, which is not so pretty to photograph.

When I found  fishmongers in Kepong are selling freshly caught fish from Kuala Selangor, this Siakap (Seabass) fish is perfect for my photo. This steamed fish dish was specially prepared by my elder sister with an addition of hot garlic oil. I’m grateful she was very patient with me taking the food preparation photos. When the fish was hot out of the wok, she became very restless because steamed fish taste best hot. Luckily the few quick shots turn out to be decent.

Seafood is charged a premium item when you eat out, and even though steamed fish is a very simple dish compared to many other dishes. If you do it at home, not only is it cost saving (this Siakap costs me RM12 from the market, and other ingredients only adds up to about RM2), steaming fish is really easy and the clean up is minimal.

This recipe is submitted to Muhibbah Malaysian Monday hosted by 3hungrytummies for July 2012 round-up.