Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish
The mandarin fish is fried three times until shatteringly crisp, then drizzled with a sweet and sour sauce that sizzles dramatically on contact. The flesh is fragrant and crispy, while the sauce is perfectly balanced—sweet, tangy, and refreshingly light.
Ingredients
Fresh mandarin fish (cleaned, with peony-pattern cross cuts on both sides)
750g
Yellow chive segments
70g
Scallions (some cut into segments, some minced)
25g
Ginger (sliced, some minced)
20g
Soy sauce
25g
Shaoxing wine
25g
Rice vinegar
25g
Sugar
50g
Wet starch (for coating and thickening)
15g
Sesame oil (for the sauce)
5g
Cooked peanut oil (actually uses 100g, for frying the fish)
750g
Instructions
1
Preparing the mandarin fish
Clean the mandarin fish, make peony-pattern cross cuts on both sides, tie the fish mouth tightly with string, and pat the head and body loose with a knife.
2
First frying
Heat a wok over fire, add peanut oil and heat to about 50% hot (around 125°C / 257°F). Coat the fish evenly with a layer of wet starch batter. Hold the tail in one hand and the head in the other, and gently lower it into the oil. Fry until pale yellow, then remove and untie the string from the fish mouth.
3
Second frying
After cooling slightly, return the fish to the oil at 70% hot (around 175°C / 347°F) and fry until golden yellow, then remove.
4
Third frying
After cooling slightly again, place in oil at 80% hot (around 200°C / 392°F) and fry until deep golden brown. When the fish floats on the oil surface, remove and plate it, then gently loosen the flesh with a clean cloth.
5
Making the sweet and sour sauce
While the fish is being fried the second time, heat another wok over fire, add oil and heat until hot, add minced scallions and ginger to release their fragrance, then add soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sugar, and water and bring to a boil. Thicken with starch water, then drizzle in sesame oil, vinegar, and cooked peanut oil, and add the yellow chive segments to complete the sweet and sour sauce.
6
Pouring sauce and serving
Take another wok and heat it over fire until the bottom is scorching hot, add cooked peanut oil, and quickly pour in the sauce from the other wok. Bring the fish and sauce rapidly to the table, and while hot, pour the sauce over the fish, producing a sizzling sound. Then use chopsticks to loosen the fish so the sauce fully penetrates the flesh.
