Steamed Fish with Scallions, Ginger and Soy (Ca Hap Gung Hanh)

What is Cá Hấp Gừng Hành?

Cá Hấp Gừng Hành, or steamed fish with green onions, ginger, and soy sauce, is a light and easy-to-make Vietnamese dish that’s similar to Chinese and Cantonese-style steamed fish.

The fish is lightly seasoned, steamed with ginger and green onions, then hot oil is lastly poured over more thinly sliced ginger and green onions, releasing their fragrance in a sizzling display.

The result is tender, flavorful fish that’s light and healthy, perfect for pairing with steamed rice for a complete meal.

What You Will Need

To make Ca Hap Gung Hanh, gather the following equipment and ingredients:

• Steamer: You will need a steamer with a lid that will fit the fish in a single layer.
• Fish: Any white, mild fish like sea bass, snapper, or tilapia works. Traditionally, whole fish is used— with skin, head, eyes, and tail. But if you’d prefer food not staring back at you, remove the head or opt for fillets or steak cuts instead.
• Salt and Ground Black Pepper: These ingredients are used to lightly season the fish before steaming.
• Ginger and Green Onions/Scallions: The fresh aromatics that will top the fish. Some will be used in the steaming process. And some will be used afterwards.
• Soy Sauce Mixture: A mixture of light soy sauce, sugar, and hot water. This mixture is added after steaming for the final seasoning touch.
• Neutral Oil: Oil is heated over high heat, then poured over the freshly sliced aromatics on top of the fish for a sizzling, aromatic finish.

Tips and FAQs

Make sure to clean the fish thoroughly

If you don’t clean the fish well, especially whole fish, the steaming process can intensify any fishy odors.

To clean the fish, usually a good rinse with water will do. Make sure to remove any guts or blood which are usually the culprits for the unpleasant fishy smell.

For an extra thorough clean, you can scrub the fish with coarse salt before rinsing it off.

Skip the Hot Oil

For a lighter or quicker version of this dish, you can skip the hot oil altogether. Simply steam the lightly seasoned fish with the aromatics—ginger and scallions—until cooked through, add the soy sauce mixture at the end and you’re done.

What Other Aromatics Can I Use?

This recipe is a great way to use up leftover scallions and ginger. But if you don’t have these on hand, you can substitute cilantro for the scallions/green onions and thinly sliced onions—yellow, white, or even shallots—for the ginger.

What Other Vegetables Can I Add?

During the steaming process, you can add other vegetables to create a more hearty dish.

I like to include mushrooms, such as enoki or straw mushrooms, and sometimes, bamboo shoots for extra flavor and texture.

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