Brocade Fish Shreds
A traditional Zhejiang specialty featuring stir-fried snakehead fish shreds with bell peppers and shiitake mushrooms—vibrant in color, with a fresh, fragrant, tender, and silky texture.
Ingredients
Black fish (cleaned, deboned, and cut into 9 cm long shreds)
1 (about 1000 g)
Red bell pepper (julienned)
1
Green bell pepper (julienned)
1
Hydrated shiitake mushrooms (julienned)
30 g
Egg yolk cake (julienned)
30 g
Refined salt
4 g
MSG
3 g
Shaoxing wine
15 g
Wet cornstarch
40 g
White pepper powder
1 g
Shredded scallion
15 g
Shredded ginger
10 g
Rendered pork fat (for frying)
750 g (about 75 g oil actually used)
White stock
60 g
Egg whites
2
Instructions
1
Preparing the Fish Shreds
Clean the black fish, remove the bones, and slice the flesh into 9 cm long shreds. Add the salt, MSG, Shaoxing wine, egg whites, and wet cornstarch, and mix until the shreds are evenly coated.
2
Preparing the Garnishes
Cut the red and green bell peppers, shiitake mushrooms, and egg yolk cake into uniform thin shreds.
3
Mixing the Slurry Sauce
Combine the refined salt, Shaoxing wine, MSG, white pepper powder, shredded scallion, shredded ginger, white stock, and wet cornstarch in a bowl, and whisk into a smooth slurry sauce.
4
Stir-Frying to Finish
Heat a wok over the fire, add the rendered pork fat, and heat to about 40% hot (around 88°C). Add the fish shreds and stir to separate them, then add the shredded shiitake mushrooms, shredded egg yolk cake, and shredded red and green bell peppers; stir-fry briefly, then drain through a colander. Leave a thin layer of oil in the wok, pour in the slurry sauce and stir until thickened, then return the fish shreds and garnishes to the wok and gently toss until evenly coated. Serve immediately.
