China · Shandong

Braised Carp

Name: Braised Carp
Prep time: 33 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 53 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Shandong
Ingredients: pork belly 100 g; large scallion 200 g; ginger 80 g; garlic cloves 4 pieces; sugar 50 g

A Shandong home dish where a whole carp is fried first and then stewed with pork belly, scallion and ginger until the sauce is thick and savoury.

53 minutes · 4 servings · Moderate

The pork belly is not an accident: it renders into the braising liquid and gives the sauce a rounded richness that fish alone cannot supply. Frying the carp before the stew keeps the skin from dissolving and gives the flesh time to stay whole. Long gentle cooking follows, after which the aromatics are fished out so the sauce is smooth rather than fibrous.

Ingredients

pork belly100 g
large scallion200 g
ginger80 g
garlic cloves4 pieces
sugar50 g

Directions

1
Wash the scallion, ginger, garlic and dried chillies.
2
Cut the white part of the scallion into lengths of about 4 cm and split each length into four.
3
Slice the ginger, each piece about 3 mm thick.
4
Crush one garlic clove and mince it, halve the rest.
5
Cut the dried chillies into four lengths each.
6
Slice the pork belly into pieces of roughly 4 by 4 cm.
7
Wash the fish.
8
Score the thick part of the back a few times so the flavour can get in.
9
Pour plenty of oil into the wok and heat it to seventy percent hot, just beginning to smoke. Lower in the fish and fry for a minute, until the skin firms slightly, then lift it out. Do not move the fish the moment it goes in; wait, then turn it. Pour the frying oil out of the wok and leave a little in the bottom.
10
Heat the oil left in the wok, add the pork belly and fry until fragrant.
11
Add the dried chillies, the scallion, the ginger and the garlic cloves and stir-fry for one minute.
12
Tip the fried fish into the wok.
13
Pour it down the side of the wok.
14
Turn to medium heat and bring the water to a boil.
15
Turn down to low and simmer slowly so the flavours soak in.
16
After fifteen minutes, lift the lid and fish out the scallion, ginger, garlic and dried chillies.
17
Turn up to high to reduce; when a quarter of the liquid is left, scatter in some chopped garlic, turn off the heat and turn out.
18
The braised carp comes out of the wok!

Source: HowToCook · WorldBite adaptation · Unlicense source text; bilingual recipe adapted by WorldBite.