Fish belly steamed with aged mandarin peel

Ingredientsserves 4

Equipment

• A steamer, or a wok with a rack and a lid, and a plate that sits flat inside it. No rack: turn a shallow bowl upside down in the wok and stand the plate on it, with the water kept below the rim of the plate.
• A small pan for heating the oil and the soy.

How the time splits

1. 30 minThe peel soaks softhands off
2. 8 minScrape and shred the peel, dry the fish, dress the platehands on
3. 10 minSteaming on high, lid shuthands on
4. 2 minPour off the plate, hot oil and soy overhands on

Method

1. Soak the peel in water for thirty minutes until soft, scrape every bit of the white pith off the inside with a knife, and cut it into fine threads. Any pith left on makes the whole plate bitter.
2. Dry the fish and rub it lightly with salt and white pepper. Lay one spring onion in lengths on the plate and put the fish on top, so the steam can pass underneath. Tuck half the ginger and peel into the folds of the belly or the cavity, and scatter the rest over.
3. Bring the water in the wok to a hard boil before the fish goes in, cover, and steam on high for eight to ten minutes; a thick belly, or a whole 500 g bream, wants the full ten. Do not lift the lid to look. Lifting it lets the steam out, the time has to be made up, and the fish overcooks. It is done in one go.
4. Only when the time is up, lift the lid and push a chopstick into the thickest part. If it slides straight through, the flesh comes off the bone and is white and opaque all the way, it is done.
5. Meanwhile, heat the light and dark soy, the sugar and two tablespoons of water. Pour every drop of liquid off the plate: left there, it makes the hot oil spit and waters down the soy.
6. Shred the second spring onion over the fish, heat the oil until it smokes and pour it over so it sizzles, then pour on the hot soy. Serve at once.

Take care

• Fish, soy and wheat (the soy sauce). Steam until the thickest part is opaque right through and comes away from the bone. A whole fish has bones: give children the belly, or bone theirs first. Hot oil on a wet plate spits, so pour the liquid off first.

The story

A dish for the older generation: peel for the river fish's muddiness, the belly because it is the silkiest cut, on the yum cha lunch menu and on 阿媽's table at home. The skill in it is not the steaming, which takes ten minutes, but the peel. Nobody who did not grow up beside this dish knows why the peel is there, and a piece of peel takes three years to earn the name. The site's plain steamed fish is its everyday cousin, and the home-dried peel on the jars wall is where it starts.

Same kind

Crackling roast pork bellyBraised shiitake in oyster sauceConpoy and whole garlic, steamed and turned out

Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.