Ingredients and Tools
- Scallion, ginger, garlic, dried chili
- Oil, salt, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, aged vinegar, oyster sauce, cooking wine, white sugar
- Carp, pork belly
Measurements
- Carp (about 2 jin)
- Pork belly 100g
- Scallion 200g
- Ginger 80g
- Garlic cloves 3-4
- Two dried chilies
- White sugar 50g
Steps
- Wash the scallion, ginger, garlic, and dried chilies separately.
- Cut the white part of the scallion into sections about 4cm long, then split each section into four pieces.
- Slice the ginger into pieces about 3mm thick.
- Crush and mince one garlic clove, and cut the remaining garlic into halves.
- Cut the dried chilies into four sections.
- Slice the pork belly into pieces about 4cm*4cm.
- Wash the fish.
- Make several diagonal slits in the thick part of the fish back to help it absorb flavor.
- Pour in more oil in the wok, heat to 70% hot (just starting to smoke), add the fish and fry for 1 minute until the skin is slightly firm and remove to set aside (do not stir the fish immediately after adding; wait a bit before stirring and flipping). Pour out the oil used for frying, leaving a little oil in the wok.
- Heat the oil in the wok, add the pork belly, and stir-fry until fragrant.
- Add the dried chilies, scallion, ginger, and garlic halves, and stir-fry for 1 minute.
- Add the fried fish to the wok.
- Pour along the side of the wok:
- 50ml cooking wine
- 50ml aged vinegar
- 50ml Wei Ji Xian
- 20ml dark soy sauce for color
- 5ml oyster sauce for freshness
- 5g spoon of salt
- 50g white sugar
- Add water to cover the fish.
- Set to medium heat and bring the water to a boil.
- Reduce to low heat and simmer to let the flavors infuse.
- After 15 minutes, open the lid and remove the scallion, ginger, garlic, and dried chilies from the wok.
- Increase to high heat to reduce the sauce; when the sauce is reduced to 1/4, sprinkle in some minced garlic, turn off the heat, and plate.
- Braised carp is ready!
Notes
- Stir-frying pork belly renders lard; compared to vegetable oil, animal fat is more fragrant.
- Pork belly stir-fried to golden brown will taste very fragrant after braising, like a side ingredient.
- Fish itself has low fat content, so it lacks aroma; the focus is on the texture of the flesh. So when cooking fish dishes, it is generally recommended to use lard if you want a pot of milky, rich fish soup. Lard is the best choice~ If you follow this guide's cooking process and find any issues or processes that can be improved, please submit an Issue or Pull request.