BRAISED WHOLE FISH

Serves 4-6.

Preparation & cooking time: 20–25 mins & marinating time.

This is a basic recipe – a whole fish is first deep-fried, then braised in a specially prepared sauce such as ‘Spring onion and ginger’, ‘Chilli and garlic’, etc.

1 whole fish (sea bass, bream, trout, grouper or grey mullet, etc) weighing about 675g (1½lb), cleaned

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine

oil for deep-frying

fresh coriander leaves to garnish

For the sauce:

1 tablespoon thinly shredded fresh ginger root

2–3 spring onions, thinly shredded

2 tablespoons yellow bean sauce

about 100ml (4fl oz) stock or water

a few drops of sesame oil

Make sure the fish is scaled and gutted. Wash and dry well on kitchen paper. Score both sides of the fish diagonally as far as the bone at intervals of about 2.5cm (1″). Marinate in the soy sauce and wine for 10–15 minutes.

Deep-fry the fish in hot oil for about 3–4 minutes, turning once. Pour off the excess oil, leaving about 1 tablespoon in the wok. Push the fish to one side of the wok and add the ingredients for the sauce (except the sesame oil), bring to the boil, and braise the fish in it for 4–5 minutes, turning once.

Finally, add the sesame oil and serve, garnished with coriander leaves.

NB For a ‘hot and spicy’ version, add 1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic (and finely chop the ginger and spring onions), and instead of yellow bean sauce, use 1 tablespoon chilli bean sauce; also add a little sugar and rice vinegar as well as a little tomato purée or ketchup (whichever you prefer). The cooking method is exactly the same.

hancheng

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