Aftertaste Fish Slices
An elegant cold banquet appetizer: tender, silky white fish slices served with four dipping sauces — chili oil, fish-fragrant, Sichuan pepper, and ginger — to be enjoyed according to each diner's taste.
Ingredients
Fresh carp
750 g
Fine salt
9 g
Cooking wine
20 g
Starch
15 g
Egg white
10 g
Sugar
20 g
Chili oil
15 g
Toasted sesame seeds
10 g
Garlic paste
5 g
Pickled chili (minced)
8 g
Minced garlic
15 g
Minced ginger
15 g
Crushed ginger
15 g
Chopped scallion
30 g
Cleaned Sichuan peppercorns
2 g
Clear stock
10 g
Sichuan pepper oil
5 g
Sesame oil
30 g
Instructions
1
Step 1
Scale and gill the fresh carp, scrape out all of the innards and rinse clean. Cut off the head, split the fish in half lengthwise, and remove the backbone along with the spiny rib section. Peel off the skin, lift out two strips of clean fish flesh, cut them crosswise into 6 cm sections, then slice the sections on the diagonal into 4 mm thick pieces and place in a bowl. Add 4 g fine salt, the cooking wine, egg white and starch and toss until the fish is slick and lightly coated. Spread the slices out in a pot of boiling water to poach just until cooked through, then lift out and drain well for later use.
2
Step 2
In four separate dipping dishes, prepare the four sauces:
- Spicy oil (hong you) flavor: stir together 1 g fine salt, 15 g soy sauce, 3 g vinegar, 3 g sugar, 5 g garlic paste, 0.5 g MSG, 15 g chili oil and the toasted sesame seeds.
- Fish-fragrant (yu xiang) flavor: stir together 1 g fine salt, 0.5 g MSG, 15 g soy sauce, 12 g vinegar, 17 g sugar, the minced pickled chili, minced garlic, minced ginger, 10 g chopped scallion and 10 g sesame oil.
- Pepper-numbing (jiao ma) flavor: chop 20 g chopped scallion together with the cleaned Sichuan peppercorns into a fine paste, then stir in 2 g fine salt, 0.5 g MSG, 10 g clear stock, 2 g vinegar, a drizzle of Sichuan pepper oil and 10 g sesame oil.
- Ginger juice (jiang zhi) flavor: stir together 1 g fine salt, the crushed ginger, 13 g vinegar, 15 g soy sauce, 0.5 g MSG and 10 g sesame oil.
Set each dish aside.
3
Step 3
Arrange the drained fish slices on a serving plate and set the four sauce dishes around it on the four sides. Bring to the table together so each diner can dip the fish into whichever sauce they prefer.
