Ham Fish
Beijing-style Ham Fish: The ham is moist, crispy and aromatic; the fish slices are tender and fresh, and the fatty portions are rich without being greasy.
Ingredients
Mackerel fish fillet (sliced)
1 kg
Cooked ham (cut into long slices)
100 g
Pork fat (sliced)
60 g
Egg white (part for marinating, rest for batter)
60 g
Lard (about 60 g actually consumed)
600 g
Flour
20 g
Sichuan peppercorn powder
2 g
Sesame oil
5 g
Wet starch (less than half for marinating, rest for batter)
20 g
Cooking wine
6 g
MSG
1 g
Scallion (minced)
10 g
Minced ginger
5 g
Instructions
1
Slice
Select the best meat from the middle of the cooked ham and cut it into slices about 5–6 cm long, 2–3 cm wide, and 0.2 cm thick. Cut the fish fillet and pork fat into slices of the same size.
2
Marinate and assemble
Place the pork fat slices in a bowl and add the wet starch (less than half), cooking wine, Sichuan peppercorn powder, sesame oil, MSG, minced scallion, minced ginger, and 20 g of the egg white. Mix well. Then, one piece at a time, sandwich each piece of pork fat between a ham slice and a fish fillet, aligning them neatly so the pork fat sits in the middle.
3
Make the egg batter
To the remaining egg white, add the rest of the wet starch along with the flour, and stir into a thin egg batter. Set aside.
4
Pan-fry then deep-fry
Heat a wok over high heat, swirl in a little lard to season it, then pour it out. Shift to low heat, add a small amount of cold lard, and once hot, dip each ham-fish sandwich into the thin egg batter and lay the pieces in the wok one at a time. Pan-fry the fish side first for 3–4 minutes, then flip and pan-fry the ham side for 2–3 minutes. Finally, add the full amount of lard, move the wok back to high heat, and deep-fry until pale golden. Remove and drain off the oil.
