China · Shandong
Sweet and Sour Carp
A Shandong banquet dish: a whole carp scored, battered and fried until crisp, then flooded with a bright red sweet and sour sauce.
Carp was the catch of inland waterways rather than the sea, and this is the dish that made it worth cooking whole. Scoring the fish in a lattice both seasons the flesh and keeps it together in the fryer, and the batter needs to rest so that it stretches into thin strands. Once the fish is in, it is never flipped with a single tool; a wire skimmer supports the head while a spatula carries the body.
Ingredients
- water50 g
- tomato ketchup40 g
- sugar20 g
- white vinegar10 g
- cornstarch10 g
- salt30 g
- large scallion30 g
- ginger30 g
- Shaoxing wine25 g
Directions
- 1
Clean the fish thoroughly, making sure no scales or other bits are left.
- 2
Lay the fish with its head to the left and its belly down, holding the knife in your right hand. Cut straight down one centimetre, press the fish and slice to the left three to four centimetres, then make a light cut through the middle of each slice.
- 3
Put the fish in a basin, slice the large ginger and cut the large scallion into lengths; the cuts need not be neat, they are mainly there to drive off any fishy smell.
- 4
Squeeze the juices out of the scallion and ginger into the basin with all your strength.
- 5
Add 20 g of salt and 25 g of Shaoxing wine, then give the carp a good rub so the mixture is evenly spread.
- 6
- 7
Take a clean basin and add 100 g of flour, 200 g of cornstarch, 180 g of water and 5 g of salt. Mix by hand until the batter is thick enough to fall in strands, then crack in one egg and mix again.
- 8
Wait thirty minutes.
- 9
Lay the fish on the board and dry the surface with a dry towel, which helps the batter adhere.
- 10
Rinse the basin and wipe it dry.
- 11
Set a wok over the heat with about one litre of oil and bring it to about seventy percent hot, roughly 200 to 240 degrees.
- 12
Hold the fish by the tail and lower the head towards the bottom of the oil, ladling hot oil over the body. Once the batter has set, lower the fish slowly into the oil, lift the head gently with a spatula and slide a wire skimmer underneath to stop the underside scorching.
- 13
Have a fish platter ready beside the wok.
- 14
Slide the fish across from the body with a spatula, using the two tools together to turn it over. Fry for another two minutes the same way, with the skimmer supporting the head and the spatula the body, then transfer it to the platter.
- 15
Pour the oil from the wok into the dried basin, set it aside and clean the wok out.
- 16
In a small bowl combine 50 g of water, 40 g of ketchup, 20 g of sugar and 10 g of white vinegar and mix well.
- 17
In another small bowl mix 10 g of cornstarch with 10 g of water into a slurry.
- 18
Heat the wok over high heat, pour in the sauce mixture, bring it to the boil over high heat and then turn it down low.
- 19
Add the cornstarch slurry, stirring as you pour, and turn off the heat after twenty seconds.
- 20
Spoon the finished sauce evenly over the fish, add a little coriander or chopped scallion to garnish, and the sweet and sour carp is ready.
- 21
Source: HowToCook · WorldBite adaptation · Unlicense source text; bilingual recipe adapted by WorldBite.