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1
Place the dried lotus leaves in a large basin and cover with very hot water. Weight them down if necessary. Soak for 30 minutes. The leaves are ready when they are completely pliable and fold without cracking; leaves that crack are not yet ready.
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2
Combine the light soy sauce, sesame oil, and Shaoxing rice wine in a shallow dish. Add the sliced ginger. Lay the fish in the marinade, turn once, and leave for no more than 10 minutes. The flesh should carry a faint amber gloss; do not exceed this time or the soy will overwhelm the lotus fragrance.
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3
Lay a soaked lotus leaf flat. Place the spring onion batons in the centre as a bed for the fish. Set the fish on top with its ginger slices and any remaining marinade. This is where the dish lives or dies: wrap the leaf fully around the fish, folding it into a neat, sealed parcel — no gaps — securing with toothpicks or a firm fold-and-tuck. A loose parcel bleeds fragrance into the steamer water rather than into the flesh.
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4
Set the parcel in a steamer basket over briskly boiling water. Cover and steam for 12–15 minutes for a 600 g fish — allow the longer end of the range, as the leaf insulates the fish. The parcel is done when it feels firm under a light press and a fine thread of fragrant steam escapes at the folds; the smell should be distinctly grassy and herbal.
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5
Transfer the sealed parcel to a serving platter and bring it to table unopened. Open at the moment of serving: the sudden release of lotus-perfumed steam is the signature of the dish. The flesh beneath should be just opaque throughout and pull cleanly from the bone.