Pan-Fried Fish (Guo Tiao Yu)
A signature Hunan dish: fish fillets pan-fried with fatty pork until golden, crispy on the outside and tender within—best enjoyed dipped in salt and pepper.
Ingredients
mackerel fillet (main, sliced into 4 large pieces 0.6 cm thick)
200 g
fatty pork (main, sliced into 4 large pieces 0.3 cm thick)
100 g
diced ham (main)
50 g
chopped cilantro (main)
50 g
egg (main, mostly used for marinating)
1
corn flour (main, for coating)
to taste
vegetable oil (seasoning)
100 g
sesame oil (seasoning)
25 g
wet starch (seasoning)
30 g
cooking wine (seasoning)
18 g
MSG (seasoning)
2 g
salt (seasoning)
2 g
Sichuan pepper salt (seasoning, for dipping)
a pinch
chopped scallion (seasoning)
10 g
chopped ginger (seasoning)
10 g
Instructions
1
Prepare the ingredients
Slice the mackerel fillet and fatty pork into 4 large pieces of the same size (mackerel 0.6 cm thick, pork 0.3 cm thick).
2
Marinate the fish and pork slices
Marinate each separately with salt, MSG, sesame oil, eggs (most of them), cooking wine, chopped scallion, and chopped ginger.
3
Coat and arrange
Lay the fatty pork slices as a base, sprinkle corn flour on top, mix a thin batter with a small amount of egg and wet starch, coat the fish slices with a layer, then place them on top of the pork. Sprinkle diced ham in the middle and chopped cilantro on both sides.
4
Pan-fry over low heat
Pour 50 g of vegetable oil into the pan, heat over low heat, place the slices pork-side down into the pan and pan-fry.
5
Deep-fry over high heat
Move to high heat, pour in the remaining oil and deep-fry until golden brown. Remove, cut into small pieces, arrange neatly on a plate, and serve.
