Braised Fish
- WARNING If you have never chopped meat with a cleaver, this menu is not recommended!!! - During operation, the sharp cleaver may cut your fingers, please be very careful.
Ingredients and Tools
- Ginger, garlic cloves, dried chili
- Oil, salt, cooking wine, vinegar, soy sauce, white sugar
- Fish Optional extra ingredients Note these are based on experience; except for cilantro, more of the others is not a good thing
- Oyster sauce
- Scallion
- Cilantro
- Xiao mi chili
- MSG (chicken bouillon)
Measurements
- Fish It is recommended for beginners to use one medium-sized crucian carp; score it in advance to help it cook through (otherwise the back of the fish is容易夹生)
- Julienned ginger: with regular old ginger, cut 2-3 slices, then cut into slivers
- Garlic cloves 3-4, smash or mince or slice
- Dried chili (to taste) 2-3, chopped
- Cilantro to taste
- Salt 10g; if the chili is very hot, add a bit more
- Vinegar 5ml
- Soy sauce 5ml
- White sugar 10g
- Scallion 1-2, just sprinkle chopped scallion
- Xiao mi chili 1-2, can omit; from experience, at most 2, otherwise it will be too spicy and leave you with “菊花残.”
- MSG, to taste, don’t add too much, 5g is enough
- Oyster sauce, 5g is enough, same as MSG
Steps
- Prepare the ginger and garlic, chop fine
- Chop the dried chili; keep it together with the ginger and garlic for the final step
- Add 30-50ml oil and wait for the pan to heat...
- Add the fish wiped dry (so you don’t get splashed with hot oil), then shake the pan and pan-fry with hot oil; be sure to keep the heat low during this process
- Flip the fish and repeat the pan-frying process
- Add the ginger, garlic, and chili, stir-fry until fragrant
- Pour in cooking wine, a bit more; be careful at this step, it will create a lot of oil smoke
- Pour in vinegar (if you like vinegar, you can add more)
- Then add white sugar and soy sauce (dark soy)
- Add cold water, just enough to submerge the fish; then switch to medium heat, cover, and after about 1 minute flip the fish, continue covering
- After 3-4 minutes, add salt, xiao mi chili, oyster sauce (MSG, chicken bouillon, etc.), then continue covering; you will need to keep flipping later
- When the sauce reduces to just below the fin along the fish’s back line (or when the sauce is low), turn to low heat, add cilantro and chopped scallion, then cover for 20 seconds and turn off the heat
- Plate