China · Home-style
Mandarin Fish with Scallion Oil
A steamed mandarin fish topped with fresh scallion and bird’s eye chilli, finished with hot oil poured over at the table until it crackles.
Cleaning a mandarin fish properly takes longer than cooking it, and the black membrane inside the belly and the blood along the backbone are the two things that make a fish taste muddy if they are left. Scoring every few centimetres down to the bone is what lets the salt and wine reach the flesh. The oil poured over at the end is heated slowly rather than smoking hot, because scorched oil turns bitter and covers everything else.
Ingredients
- mandarin fish500 g
- small scallions1 pieces
- bird’s eye chillies2 pieces
- ginger50 g
- Shaoxing wine25 g
- vegetable oil15 g
- salt8 g
- steamed fish soy sauce10 g
Directions
- 1
Buy a fish that has already been prepared at the market (if you do it yourself, it is best to leave the innards in), and scrape off every scale from the surface.
- 2
Use kitchen paper to wipe away the blood against the backbone and the black membrane inside the belly. The bone blood affects the texture, and the black membrane is where the fishy smell comes from.
- 3
Run the back of a knife along the surface of the fish several times to scrape off the slime and take away more of the fishy smell, then rinse the fish inside and out.
- 4
Lay the fish flat on the board and pat the inside and outside dry with kitchen paper. With the head to the left and the tail to the right, cut downwards from behind the gills every 3 cm, cutting as deep as the backbone, and do the same on the other side.
- 5
Lay the fish flat in a basin, making sure there is no water left in it.
- 6
Take a 50 g piece of ginger, about the size of an egg, peel it and wash it, then slice it 3 mm thick.
- 7
Wash the bird’s eye chillies, remove the stalks and cut them into 2 mm rounds, or into 1 mm shreds.
- 8
Wash the small scallions, trim the roots and cut them into 3 cm lengths. If a scallion is on the thick side, split it lengthways.
- 9
Add 8 g of salt and 25 g of Shaoxing wine to the basin, put on disposable gloves and massage the fish all over for a minute so that every part is evenly coated.
- 10
When the fish is massaged, slip a slice of ginger into every cut and put three slices in the belly, and marinate for ten minutes. Do not leave it much longer or the freshness of the fish is lost.
- 11
While the fish marinates, put 5 L of water in the steamer, bring it to the boil and set the bamboo steamer on top.
- 12
Once the fish has marinated it will have released liquid. Pour off the liquid and the wine and ginger used for the marinade, rinse the inside and outside of the fish clean, and pat it dry with kitchen paper.
- 13
Lay the fish flat on the steaming plate and slip fresh ginger slices back into the cuts and into the belly.
- 14
Put the plate of fish into the steamer, cover and steam over medium heat for twenty minutes.
- 15
Steam condenses on the fish and the plate and collects as fish broth. When it comes out of the steamer do not pour this away; it is the essence of the dish.
- 16
Lift out the plate with heatproof tongs and pour 10 g of steamed fish soy sauce over the fish and around it.
- 17
Then scatter the small scallion lengths and the bird’s eye chillies evenly over the fish and around it.
- 18
Pour 15 g of vegetable oil into a wok and let it simmer slowly over medium-low heat for five minutes. Do not use high heat, or the oil burns off quickly.
- 19
Pour the hot oil slowly and evenly over the fish, and the mandarin fish with scallion oil is ready to leave the kitchen!
Source: HowToCook · WorldBite adaptation · Unlicense source text; bilingual recipe adapted by WorldBite.