Peacock-Display Firewood-Bundle Mandarin Fish

Name: Peacock-Display Firewood-Bundle Mandarin Fish
Prep time: 35 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 55 min
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 250 g cleaned mandarin fish meat; 12 quail eggs; 100 g cooked ham; 50 g mixed bone broth; 100 g winter bamboo shoots; 2 egg whites; 20 spinach hearts; 15 g ginger; 3 each red and green cherries; 100 g scallions; 100 g cilantro; 5 g Shaoxing wine; 20 g dry starch; 2 g fine salt; 10 g wet starch; 5 g sesame oil; 1 g MSG; 750 g cooked pork lard

A classic Xiang (Hunan) dish: mandarin fish formed into firewood-bundle shapes and arranged like a peacock displaying its tail, prized for its color, aroma, and flavor.

55 min

Easy

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Peacock-Display Firewood-Bundle Mandarin Fish

Ingredients

cleaned mandarin fish meat 250 g

quail eggs 12

cooked ham 100 g

mixed bone broth 50 g

winter bamboo shoots 100 g

egg whites 2

spinach hearts 20

ginger 15 g

red and green cherries 3 each

scallions 100 g

cilantro 100 g

Shaoxing wine 5 g

dry starch 20 g

fine salt 2 g

wet starch 10 g

sesame oil 5 g

MSG 1 g

cooked pork lard 750 g

Instructions

Cut into strips and marinate

Cut the fish meat into strips 0.5 cm thick and 7 cm long. Cut the winter bamboo shoots and ham into strips 3 cm long. Blanch 75 g of scallions in boiling water. Separately, crush the remaining scallions and ginger, add Shaoxing wine and 1 g fine salt, mix well and squeeze out the juice, add MSG, and pour over the fish strips to marinate for about 8 minutes. Then combine the egg whites and dry starch, and use the mixture to coat the fish strips.

Make the steamed eggs

Cut the cherries in half. Crack each quail egg individually into 12 spoons that have been coated with cooked pork lard. Pick and wash the cilantro. Then embed half a cherry in each spoon holding the quail egg, and arrange a few cilantro leaves to form a peacock-screen flower pattern. Steam over a pot for 10 minutes until cooked, and keep warm in the steamer. Combine the mixed bone broth, sesame oil, and wet starch into a sauce.

Bundle into firewood shapes

Arrange the blanched scallion roots straight on a plate. Lay 2 strips of ham, 2 strips of fish, and 2 strips of winter bamboo shoots crosswise on top. Bundle into 20 firewood-shaped bundles.

Fry, plate, and pour sauce

Place a wok over high heat, add cooked pork lard and heat until boiling. Add the bundled mandarin fish, stir-fry until cooked, then remove and pour into a colander to drain the oil. Then take out the steamed quail eggs and arrange them at one end of a long plate to form a peacock screen. Place the firewood-bundled fish in the center of the plate as the peacock's body. Place a sponge cake carved into a peacock head at the front. Place the wok over heat, add the prepared sauce and bring to a boil to make a thin glaze, then pour evenly over the peacock-screen mandarin fish to finish.