China · Chinese
House-smoked fish (Henan style)
A Henan / Luoyang wedding-banquet cold dish: grass carp cured, pan-fried, dusted, then genuinely smoke-dried over sugar and tea leaves. Savoury-forward, unlike the sweet brined Shanghai version. Public reference · home adaptation, not a historical original.
Public reference · Home adaptation Smoked fish is a standard cold plate at Luoyang wedding banquets, evoking “abundance year after year”. Henan smoked fish and Shanghai xunyu are different routes: Luoyang cures, pan-fries then smokes for a savoury, firm-outside tender-inside result; Shanghai deep-fries, refries then soaks in a sweet cold brine. This entry follows the Luoyang method and is kept separate from the Kongfu banquet version rather than merged by name. **Ventilation and safety**: smoking produces heavy smoke. Work only in a kitchen with a working extractor or well outside, away from open flames and combustibles, never in a sealed indoor space. Smoking time and sugar quantity are editorial for 4; too much sugar burns. The thin starch coating that prevents the skin breaking is kept from the source method. Contains fish; soy sauce contains soy and wheat; cooking wine contains alcohol; sesame oil contains sesame. This version is genuinely smoked and produces smoke — work in a ventilated space. 搜狐网：一煎一熏藏滋味，河南熏鱼 — Complete Henan method: marinate, starch coat, pan-fry, then 5–8 minutes of sugar-and-tea smoke with a 3-minute rest. https://m.sohu.com/a/980191153_121408299 顶端新闻：洛阳婚宴美食·熏鱼 — Smoked fish's place on a Luoyang wedding cold plate, grass-carp selection, and the cure–dry–fry–smoke sequence. https://www.topnews.cn/news/145FD0E245BB4A71 FDA: Food Allergies — Basis for declaring fish, soy, wheat and sesame allergens. https://www.fda.gov/food/food-labeling-nutrition/food-allergies AI-generated illustration; not kitchen-tested.
Ingredients
- grass carp mid-section, head, tail and bones removed600 g
- salt8 g
- light soy sauce20 ml
- cooking wine20 ml
- ginger10 g
- scallion10 g
- white pepper powder1 g
- cornstarch for a thin coating15 g
- white sugar for the smoke pot20 g
- tea leaves for the smoke pot5 g
- star anise for the smoke pot2 piece
- cooking oil for frying200 ml
- sesame oil for brushing5 ml
Directions
- 1
Clean the carp, remove the dark membrane and blood streaks, cut into two-finger-wide chunks. Soak about 10 minutes in cold water, rinse and dry thoroughly.
- 2
Toss the fish with salt, light soy, wine, ginger, scallion and white pepper and marinate 30 minutes. Remove the aromatics, dust lightly with dry starch and shake off the excess.
- 3
Heat oil to about 160°C. Pan-fry the fish over medium-low heat until one side sets and turns golden, flip and cook through, then drain. The starch coat is what stops the skin tearing.
- 4
Work where there is extraction or outdoors: line a clean wok or pot with foil, scatter in the sugar, tea and star anise, fit a rack above it and arrange the fish in a single layer. Cover.
- 5
Once thick smoke rises, reduce to low heat and smoke for 5–8 minutes, occasionally shaking the pot for even exposure. Cut the heat at once if the colour darkens too far.
- 6
Turn off the heat but keep the lid on for 3 minutes so the fish absorbs the smoke. Brush with a thin film of sesame oil and serve cool or warmed.
Source: WorldBite · public-reference adaptation · Source-attributed editorial adaptation; AI illustration; not an authenticated original recipe.