China · Sichuan

Sichuan Grilled Fish

Name: Sichuan Grilled Fish
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 21 min
Total time: 41 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Sichuan
Ingredients: cooking oil 20 ml; Shaoxing wine 5 ml; salt Exact; ground white pepper 5 g; dried chilli pieces 10 pieces; lantern chillies 4 pieces

The Chongqing and Chengdu favourite: a whole fish seared in a heavy, chilli-laden broth with vegetables underneath, finished with a ladle of smoking oil poured over the dried chillies.

41 minutes · 4 servings · Moderate

It is cooked in the pan rather than on a grill, which is why the dish spread so quickly through Sichuan and Hunan: one vessel, one table, no charcoal and no smoke. The fish is scored deeply so the boiling broth reaches the flesh, and the vegetables are deliberately undercooked so they drink the broth up. The final pour of hot oil over the dried chillies is what makes the room smell the way it does.

Ingredients

cooking oil20 ml
Shaoxing wine5 ml
saltExact
ground white pepper5 g
dried chilli pieces10 pieces
lantern chillies4 pieces

Directions

1
Take a grass carp, about three jin, and cut it open along the back. Score both sides a few times from the spine downward, taking care not to cut through to the belly, which would spoil the shape.
2
Put the fish in a container, add the Shaoxing wine, 10 g of white pepper and 5 g of salt, rub it all over and marinate for twenty minutes.
3
Cut half a large scallion into short blocks, halve the garlic cloves and put them in a container with the star anise, bay leaves and cassia bark.
4
Cut the dried chilli pieces in half and put them in a container with the lantern chillies.
5
Cut the celery into short lengths.
6
Blanch the bean sprouts.
7
Blanch the tofu skin and cut it into shreds.
8
Cut the onion into shreds.
10
Add 20 ml of cooking oil to the pan and, once it is hot, fry the scallion, garlic, star anise and bay leaves until fragrant.
11
Add half a packet of hotpot base and 15 to 20 g of bean paste and fry until the oil turns red.
12
Season with 5 g of sugar, 10 g of salt and 5 ml of light soy sauce, then pour in enough water to come level with the ingredients and bring to a boil.
13
Add the celery lengths, the bean sprouts and the tofu skin shreds in turn. Do not cook them through, just scald them, then lay over the onion shreds and set the fish on top.
14
Add the dried chillies, the lantern chillies and the green Sichuan peppercorn.
15
In a separate pan heat the oil and pour it over the chillies you have just added to release their aroma.
16
Finally scatter over roasted peanuts, chopped scallion, white sesame seeds and coriander.
17
Cook for five to six minutes and it is ready.

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