Dongting Lake Three-Flavor Fish
An innovative Hunan dish made with Dongting Lake mandarin fish, prepared in three distinct ways to combine sweet-and-sour, charred, and silky-tender flavors.
Ingredients
Guangxi fish fillet (divided for use)
800 g
Salt bread
150 g
Mung bean sprouts (ends trimmed)
100 g
Cooked ham (cut into diamond-shaped small slices)
25 g
Cilantro (picked and washed clean)
50 g
Eggs (use 2 yolks + 1 white)
3
Red chili peppers (cut into thin strips)
2
Peanut oil
500 g (uses 150 g)
Fine salt
5 g
MSG
1 g
Cooking wine
25 g
Scallions (mashed for juice)
10 g
Ginger (mashed for juice)
10 g
White vinegar
5 g
Sugar
25 g
White pepper
1 g
Dry starch
50 g
Wet starch
50 g
Chicken broth
100 g
Sesame oil
10 g
Instructions
1
Tomato Chrysanthemum Fish
Mash the scallions and ginger, then extract their juice with the cooking wine. Cut 400 g of the fish fillet into 10 even pieces, slightly trim the four corners of each piece, and score a cross-hatch pattern diagonally at 2 cm intervals. Marinate with fine salt and the scallion-ginger wine juice. Dip each piece through the egg yolk liquid, then pat with dry starch. Combine the chicken broth, sugar, white vinegar, tomato sauce, and wet starch into a sauce. Place a wok over high heat, add peanut oil and heat until about 80% hot. Lower the starch-coated fish pieces one by one into the oil and fry until golden yellow, then remove and arrange decoratively on a plate. Leave 50 g of oil in the wok and immediately pour in the combined sauce; when it bubbles, add a little hot oil. Pour the sauce over the chrysanthemum fish and serve.
2
Fish Paste Bread
Cut the ham into small diamond-shaped slices, wash the cilantro clean, and cut the white parts of the scallions into sections. Take 100 g of fish fillet and pound into a fine paste, then mix with fine salt and MSG to make the fish filling. Cut the bread into 5 cm long by 3 cm wide slices, 10 pieces total. Whip the egg whites until foamy, add dry starch and stir into a fluffy snow-egg batter. Spread the fish filling evenly over each bread slice, then cover with a layer of the snow-egg batter and smooth flat. Garnish with cilantro leaves and diamond-shaped ham slices to form a floral pattern. Place a wok over high heat, add peanut oil and heat until about 80% hot. Drop the prepared fish-paste bread slices into the oil one by one and fry until golden yellow, then remove and arrange on a plate. Heat the sesame oil in the wok, add Sichuan peppercorns, scallion whites, and fine salt, and stir-fry until fragrant. Strain out the solids to make peppercorn oil, and drizzle it over the fish paste bread to serve.
3
Bean Sprout Fish Shreds
Trim off both ends of the mung bean sprouts. Cut the red chilies into thin strips. Cut half the scallions into sections, then mash the remaining scallions with the ginger and extract their juice with the cooking wine. Cut 250 g of fish fillet into 5 cm long by 0.3 cm thick shreds. Add 1 egg white, wet starch, fine salt, and the scallion-ginger wine juice and mix well to coat the fish shreds. Separately combine the chicken broth, fine salt, MSG, white pepper, sesame oil, and wet starch into a sauce and set aside. Place a wok over high heat, add peanut oil and heat until about 40% hot. Slip the fish shreds into the oil to cook through, then pour into a strainer to drain. Leave oil in the wok and heat until about 60% hot, add the red chili strips and bean sprouts and stir-fry, season with fine salt, then add the fish shreds and toss together. Pour in the prepared sauce, toss a few more times, plate and serve.
