Sea Red Fish Lips
A seasonal autumn Beijing dish, flavored with crab roe and colored with carrot. The sauce is thick and rich, yielding a glossy red, tender finish with an intense crab flavor.
Ingredients
Rehydrated fish lips (washed, cut into strips, blanched and steamed until soft)
750 g
Crab roe
125 g
Red carrot (peeled and julienned, for making red oil)
100 g
Chicken and duck broth (for steaming and braising)
600 g
Rendered pork fat (for frying carrot shreds to make red oil)
125 g
Fine salt
25 g
Shaoxing wine
20 g
MSG (monosodium glutamate)
7.5 g
Wet cornstarch (diluted for thickening)
15 g
Scallion segments
10 g
Ginger chunks
5 g
Instructions
1
Step 1
Wash the rehydrated fish lips with cold water and cut them into strips about 10 cm long and 1.65 cm wide. Place them in a pot of boiling water and blanch briefly to remove the initial fishy smell. Remove and inspect: set aside the softer pieces in a bowl for later use. Place the firmer pieces in a separate bowl and add 5 g Shaoxing wine, 1 g fine salt, 2.5 g MSG, scallion segments, ginger chunks, and 300 g chicken and duck broth. Steam over high heat for about 10 minutes, until the fish lips are as tender as tofu. Then combine both bowls of fish lips together and drain off the original broth; set aside.
2
Step 2
Wash the carrots, peel them, and cut into fine shreds. Pour the rendered pork fat into a wok and heat over high fire until it reaches 30-40% hot, then add the carrot shreds and immediately reduce to a very low fire. Fry for 10 minutes. Once the pork fat has turned red, remove the carrot shreds and keep only the red oil for later use.
3
Step 3
Pour 100 g of chicken and duck broth into the wok, add 0.5 g fine salt, 5 g Shaoxing wine, and 1.5 g MSG, then add the fish lips. Simmer gently over a low fire. Once the broth comes to a boil, drain off the broth and arrange the fish lips neatly on a serving plate.
4
Step 4
Place the wok over the fire, pour in half of the red oil, and add the crab roe along with 5 g Shaoxing wine, 0.5 g fine salt, 2 g MSG, and 100 g chicken and duck broth. Simmer over high fire for 6 to 7 minutes so that the red oil, Shaoxing wine, and seasonings all infuse into the crab roe. Once the crab roe breaks down into fine crumbles, drizzle in the diluted wet cornstarch to thicken the sauce. Take the wok off the heat, stir in the remaining half of the red oil to make a crab roe red sauce, and pour it over the fish lips to serve.
