Roasted Stuffed Mandarin Fish
This classic signature dish from the Kong Family Mansion (the historic estate of Confucius’s descendants) features mandarin fish stuffed with a seasoned savory filling, wrapped in lacy pork net fat, and slow-roasted to tender perfection. It carries an auspicious symbolic meaning of "abundant wealth and surplus", a playful homophone reference: the Chinese word for fish (鱼, yú) is pronounced identically to the word for "surplus" (余, yú) that appears in the dish’s traditional name and associated blessing.
Ingredients
Mandarin fish (approx. 1000g, scaled, gutted, cleaned, scored)
1
Flour (mixed with water to make a batter)
150g
Chicken tenderloin (tendons removed, minced into fine paste)
100g
Pork fat (minced into fine paste)
25g
Pork belly (cut into 0.7cm cubes)
50g
Rehydrated dried scallops
15g
Ham (sliced into 6cm long, 2cm wide, 0.3cm thick pieces)
50g
Rehydrated dried sea cucumber
15g
Peeled fresh winter bamboo shoots
10g
Rehydrated dried shiitake mushrooms
10g
Pork caul fat (thick tendons removed, edges trimmed)
1
Egg white
1
Shaoxing rice wine (used in batches)
50g
Fine salt (used in batches)
5g
Scallion segments
2g
Ginger slices
1g
Sichuan peppercorns
10
Instructions
1
Prepare the Mandarin Fish
Scale the mandarin fish, remove the dorsal fin and tail fin, gut it through the mouth, and rinse clean. Hold the fish by the mouth and briefly blanch it in boiling water, then immediately transfer it to cold water, and gently scrape off any black spots or blemishes. Cut open the fish's chin with a knife, score both sides of the fish, place it on a plate, add Shaoxing rice wine (30g), fine salt (3g), scallion segments, ginger slices, and Sichuan peppercorns, marinate for about 15 minutes until flavorful, then set aside.
2
Prepare the Filling
Remove tendons from the chicken tenderloin, then mince it together with the pork fat into a fine paste. Add egg white, Shaoxing rice wine (10g), and fine salt (1g), mix well to make the chicken paste, then set aside. Cut the pork belly into 0.7cm cubes, blanch together with the dried scallops in stock, remove, mix with the pork cubes, add Shaoxing rice wine (10g) and fine salt (1g), marinate for 3 minutes. Slice the ham into pieces 6cm long, 2cm wide, and 0.3cm thick.
3
Prepare the Wrapping Materials
Remove thick tendons from the pork caul fat, trim the edges, then set aside. Mix the flour with water to make a batter, then set aside.
4
Stuff and Roast
Lift the marinated mandarin fish, remove the scallion segments, ginger slices, and Sichuan peppercorns. Prop open the fish's mouth, fill the cavity with the prepared mixed ingredients, tie the fish's mouth shut with thin string. Insert a slice of ham into each scored cut on the fish's back, then coat with the chicken paste. Place the fish on the pork caul fat, gather the edges of the caul fat to wrap the fish fully, coat evenly with batter, place on a wire rack. Put the wire rack over a charcoal fire, roast over low heat, starting with the front side then flipping to the back. Gas may build up and burst through the batter during roasting; promptly patch any cracks with more batter as needed. Roast for about 1 hour, then remove and place on a plate. Peel off the batter and caul fat, invert the fish into a fish-shaped mold, remove the remaining batter and caul fat, untie the string on the fish's mouth, and it is ready to serve.
