Crispy fish with a sour pour over sauce
I’ve seen whole fish being fried and served in Chinese restaurants, with some sort of spicy clear “sauce” poured over at the table. Tonight I took a stab at something similar, based on what was lurking in the kitchen.
You will need
- A piece of fish per person. I used a couple of pieces of chunky hake.
- A couple of spoons of cornflour
- A lemon
- A teaspoon of minced ginger
- A teaspoon of minced garlic
- A couple of spring onions finely diced
- Light soy
- Enough oil to shallow fry the fish
- Rice (I did mine in the InstantPot and it was the longest bit of the whole cook)
Do
It all comes together very quickly at the end, so you might want to cook the rice first and then do the fish and sauce at the same time. If in doubt, make the sauce, then reheat it at the last minute after the fish.
For the fish
- Put 1cm of oil on to heat
- Season the cornflour with salt and pepper
- Rub the cornflour into the fish so it’s well coated but there’s no loose cornflour on it
- Fry until cooked, for me this was about 2 minutes either side
For the pour over sauce
- Fry the onion, garlic and ginger in a couple of teaspoons of fresh oil until the spring onion is starting to crisp
- Turn off the heat and squeeze in the lemon juice
- Add an equal amount of soy
- Stir vigorously
Bringing it together
Pop the screamingly hot fish onto the rice, make sure the sauce is just under boiling, pour over the top. I added a bit of Lao Gan Ma on the side.
Result
The batter, such as it was, is very crisp and broke with a satifying snap. The pour over sauce was super sharp, with enough spice and salt to be exciting. The plain rice offsets it all, soaking up the space sauce. A little chilli from the Lao Gan Ma worked well.
Limited photos, was eating.
