Braised Chinese Style Fish Food

CHINESE BRAISED FISH (HONGSHAO YU)

Steps:

• Using paper towels, pat the fish thoroughly dry. Wrap the fish in fresh paper towels while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. The goal is to make the fish as dry as absolutely possible. Use a sharp knife to score both sides of the fish three times.
• Once the prep work is done, unwrap the fish and dust it with a thin, even layer of cornstarch on both sides. This step will help keep the skin in tact during pan-frying.
• Heat the wok until it starts to smoke, and immediately add the oil and ginger slices. Reduce the heat to medium. Once the ginger slices start to brown, remove them from the wok and set aside. Carefully lay the fish in the wok, and DO EVERYTHING IN YOUR POWER NOT TO MOVE OR TOUCH THE FISH for the next 5 minutes. You can tilt the wok around so the oil glides around to evenly brown the fish.
• After 5 minutes, shake the wok slightly to see if the fish has seared enough to stop sticking to the wok. This is when you can carefully flip the fish over and do the same process for the other side.
• Once both sides are nicely browned, add the ginger back to the wok along with the scallions, shaoxing wine, sugar, vinegar, dark soy sauce and light soy sauce. Keep the heat at medium low, and cook the fish by continuously spooning the cooking liquid over the fish. Cook on each side for 4-5 minutes. By now, the sauce should be cooked down and almost syrupy. Serve!
• Tip: If you want to make sure the fish is done, carefully pick apart the thickest part of the fish. If the meat readily comes apart from the bone, it's done. You can plate it so that the hole you made is facing down!

BRAISED CHINESE-STYLE FISH

Steps:

• Rinse and dry the fish. Coat with the cornstarch.
• Heat oil in a large skillet with a cover and brown the fish in the oil on both sides. Lower heat.
• Add the pea pods, mushrooms and water chestnuts. Combine the sherry, soy sauce, water, salt, sugar and ginger and pour over fish. Cover and simmer about 15 minutes. Remove fish to a warm platter.
• Drain the vegetables and spread them over and around the fish.
• Continue to cook the sauce until it is thickened slightly, stir in the scallions, pour over the fish and serve.

SICHUAN BRAISED COD

Steps:

• In a small bowl, mix the 2 tsp corn starch with the 2 Tbsp rice vinegar.
• Add the chicken broth, soy sauce, and ketchup.
• Season the fish with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper.
• Spread the 1/2 cup of corn starch on a wide plate.
• Put the eggs in a bowl wide enough to dip the largest pice of cod.
• Dredge the fish in the corn starch.
• Heat 2 Tbsp of oil in a 12 inch non-stick pan over medium high heat until shimmering.
• Move each piece of cod from the corn starch to the egg to coat, then put into the pan.
• Cook on the first side for 3 minutes, then turning the fish, until brown on all sides and a little firm to the touch (total cooking time will be about 5 minutes) -- it should NOT be cooked all the way through.
• Transfer the fish to a large plate.
• Add the remaining 1 Tbsp of oil to the pan, let it warm up, then add the chiles, the white parts of the scallion, and the ginger. Stir fry for 2 ;minutes, until the scallions become translucent, with some brown spots.
• Stir the corn starch and vinegar mixture, then pour it into the pan and stir. The sauce should come to a boil and thicken.
• Reduce the heat to medium low, return the fish to the pan, and flip it to coat all the pieces uniformly with sauce. Cover the pan, with the lid slightly ajar, and cook for 3-5 minutes, until the fish is cooked fully and starting to flake.
• Taste the sauce and re-season with salt and pepper if necessary.
• Put the fish on a serving plate (or individual plates) and garnish with the scallion greens.

BAKED FISH - CHINESE STYLE

Steps:

• rub olive oil on both sides of fish.
• rub sprinkling of salt into fish.
• bake in medium oven for 8-10 minutes or until fish is cooked through. don't over cook.
• while fish is baking, quickly shallow fry the spring onions and ginger in the sesame oil for a minute or two.
• prepare the soya sauce by adding the sugar or plum sauce and mixing inches.
• serve the fish on a plate, pile the spring onion and ginger on top and then drizzle all over with the soya sauce.