deanna, a friendly and pleasant nurse from jim's doctor office was asking me to put this simple recipe of mine on our blog. i promised to put it up and it's long overdue with all this travelling and all... i'm back in the tropic now and the long awaited recipe is here!
Serves 2 to 3.
Ingredients:
1 whole white, firm and fleshy fish, about 1.5 lbs., scaled and gutted - i would prefer large-mouth bass...
salt and pepper
1 tbsp. of cornstarch or flour
3 c. of vegetable oil for deep frying
For the sweet and sour sauce:
1 c. of Chinese rice wine (most Asian groceries store has it)
1-1/2 c. of sugar (or brown sugar)
½ tsp. of salt, a little bit of black pepper
1 tbsp. of very fine strips of ginger
For the garnish:
Chinese celery, sliced carrot, 1 onion, finely sliced (or 12 stalks of onion leaves, cut into 2-inch lengths)
Sesame seed oil – to taste
Make the sweet and sour sauce. Place the rice wine and sugar in a small pan and set over medium heat. Cook without stirring until the sugar dissolves. Swirl the pan and boil over medium heat for 15 to 25 minutes or until syrupy. Add the salt and ginger during the last five minutes of cooking. You can also add in tomatoes slice, or even cucumber slice.
While the sauce cooks, prepare the fish. Heat the cooking oil in a wok or frying pan. Pat the fish dry with paper towels. Cut three to four diagonal incisions about half an inch deep on both sides of the fish (what is referred to as “scoring”). Season the fish with salt and black pepper, rubbing inside the cavity and incisions. Dust with cornstarch or flour.
When the oil is hot enough (it should start to emit some smoke), deep fry the fish over high heat until golden and a light crust forms on the outside. Flip the fish when the underside is done and fry the other side for even cooking and texture. Scoop out the fish and drain on paper towels. Transfer to a serving platter and scatter the prepared garnishes on top. Pour the sweet and sour sauce over the fish and vegetables. Pour sesame oil on top.
Serve at once.
