Chef Niki Nakayama’s Steamed Rockfish Recipe
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: Aug 1, 2023 • 4 min read
Steamed rockfish is “heartwarming” and “hearty” without being “overwhelmingly strong, or powerful, or too rich,” according to award-winning Chef Niki Nakayama. Learn how to make Chef Niki’s steamed rockfish recipe, along with cooking tips.
Learn From the Best
What Is Steamed Rockfish?
Steamed rockfish is a seafood entrée in Japanese cooking. With its white flesh meat and delicate flavor, rockfish is a flexible ingredient that can easily take on the flavors of aromatics, like green onions and fresh ginger, and bases made from soy sauce, mirin, and sesame oil. In Japan, rockfish is known as a type of shiromi meat, which refers to fish that produce white-fleshed meat, like red snapper, seabass, and cod.
In Japan, rockfish fillets are a common star of steamed dishes, or mushimono, because they have a tender texture and delicate flavor, making them ideal for steaming. “Mushimono” is a Japanese culinary term for dishes prepared via steaming, including vegetables, chicken, and white fish.
Rockfish is also a popular entrée in other Asian cuisines, such as Chinese cooking, where chefs often poach the whole fish, which symbolizes abundance, for Chinese New Year celebrations.
Chef Niki Nakayama’s 3 Tips for Making Steamed Rockfish
Consider these tips from Chef Niki before preparing her steamed rockfish recipe:
- 1. Use a food processor for the potato purée. In a restaurant setting, Chef Niki may use a blender to purée a vegetable quickly, but with a potato purée, which is the base of her dish, she would choose a food processor. “We always have to consider the volume, and how it blends a little bit better, and which method would reduce the amount of starch that comes out,” she says. “For potatoes, we generally would use a food processor just because there’s so much more open space, and the speed of it is a little bit slower.”
- 2. Serve the dish hot. According to Chef Niki, “You’ll find that with a lot of Japanese cooking, very little is ever served [at] room temperature. If it’s supposed to be hot, it’s gonna be hot. If it’s supposed to be cold, it’s going to be very cold.” The temperature of the dish is important: having a steamed dish come to the table very hot is part of the dining experience.
- 3. Try yuzu or other citruses. Japanese dishes use yuzu, and it’s especially common for a steamed dish. “That’s a very pronounced flavor that sort of introduces what Japanese cuisine is,” she says, “But we wanted to also show you that you don’t have to be limited to yuzu. You can use lemon or other kinds of citrus that you feel will match your plate.”
Chef Niki Nakayama’s Steamed Rockfish Recipe
makes
prep time
20 mintotal time
45 mincook time
25 minIngredients
For the steamed rockfish
For the potato purée
For the ankake
For the garnishes
- 1
Place the fish fillets in a shallow bowl, and add a splash of sake and soy sauce and a pinch of salt. Place the bowl in a prepared steamer over medium heat, and steam for 4 minutes. Remove the bowl from the steamer and set it aside.
- 2
Put the boiled russet potatoes and butter in the bowl of a food processor. Add the dashi a little at a time while pulsing. Blend to a smooth purée. (It shouldn’t be too thick—the consistency should be similar to a loose mashed potato.) If you lift the purée with a spatula, it should slide off. Add salt to taste. Keep in mind that all of the elements of the dish will be seasoned, so be careful about adding too much salt.
- 3
Make the ankake, a sauce made with dashi, mirin, and usukuchi soy sauce in the ratio of 12:1:1. Combine 8 ounces of dashi with the mirin and soy sauce in a small saucepan, and set over medium heat.
- 4
In a small bowl, whisk the remaining 4 ounces of dashi together with the potato starch to make a slurry, and add it a little at a time to the saucepan, whisking continuously to prevent clumps. Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer. Continue whisking the mixture continuously while bringing it to a boiling point to thicken. (You’ll see it start to stick to the whisk.) Once the mixture is slightly thickened, keep it warm until you’re ready to use it.
- 5
There will be more ankake than you need. Cover and store it in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Reheat the sauce and use it on top of steamed or sautéed vegetables with rice.
- 6
Put a couple of spoonfuls of potato purée in the bottom of each of 4 small heat-proof bowls. Divide the fish among the 4 bowls, placing it skin-side up atop the potato purée. Place the bowls in a steamer and steam for 3–4 minutes (the temperature should be between 135 degrees Fahrenheit and 145 degrees Fahrenheit).
- 7
When finished, carefully remove the bowls from the steamer. Garnish each bowl with the lemon rind, then ladle the ankake over the top of the fish—just enough so there is a thin layer on top. Garnish with peppers and scallions. Cover the bowls with their lids, and serve immediately.
Become a better chef with the MasterClass Annual Membership. Gain access to exclusive video lessons taught by the world’s best, including Niki Nakayama, Gabriela Cámara, Chef Thomas Keller, Yotam Ottolenghi, Dominique Ansel, Gordon Ramsay, Alice Waters, and more.