Sichuan Boiled Fish Recipes

SICHUAN BOILED FISH (SHUI ZHU YU, 水煮鱼)

Steps:

• Cut the fish into ¼-inch thick slices at a 45-degree angle. The goal is to get pieces of fish with a lot of surface area, as they'll shrink once cooked.
• Next, marinate the fish. Add 3/4 teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper, and 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine. Mix (best with your hand) everything well. Next, add the egg white and mix, followed by 1½ tablespoons cornstarch. Mix until the marinade starts to feel "slimy," for lack of a better term. Finally, drizzle 1 tablespoon of oil over the top--there's no need to mix it in, just drizzle it over the surface. Put the fish in the refrigerator, and marinate for about 20 minutes.
• The active cooking time takes less than 10 minutes, so make sure the rest of the ingredients are prepped while the fish is marinating, and that you're ready to eat right afterwards, because this dish is best served immediately.
• In a wok set over high heat, add the chicken stock, water, ginger, garlic, scallions, ¼ teaspoon of white pepper, and 1 tablespoon of Shaoxing wine. Bring it to a boil. Now is a good time to add salt to taste. Next, add the bean sprouts, and bring to a boil once more. Cook for one minute. Now turn down the heat. Using a fine-meshed strainer, spider, or large slotted spoon, scoop all of the solids out of the soup and transfer to a heat proof serving bowl. It's very important that your serving vessel be heat-proof, as you'll be pouring very hot oil into it later.
• Now, in a small pot, slowly heat up ½ - ¾ cup oil. It doesn't have to be exact, but you should use at least a ½ cup. To test whether the oil is heated to the correct temperature, dip a wooden/bamboo chopstick into the oil and look for small bubbles forming around it, but no smoke. If the oil is smoking, it's too hot!
• When the oil is heating, bring the soup back to a boil, then turn the heat down to low. Place your fish, one piece at a time, into the soup. Once all the fish is in the soup, turn up the heat and bring everything to a boil. Once boiling, immediately pour everything (fish and soup) on top of the vegetables in the serving bowl.
• Quickly sprinkle the dried chili peppers and the green Sichuan peppercorns evenly over the fish, and pour the heated oil evenly over everything. The oil should be hot enough to sizzle the chili and the peppercorns, but not hot enough to burn the spices. Serve immediately!

SICHUAN BOILED FISH

Steps:

• Whisk egg white, wine, cornstarch, grated ginger, salt, white pepper (if using), and 1 tsp. ground Sichuan peppercorns in a medium bowl. Thinly slice fish fillets on a diagonal into ¼" slices and place in bowl with marinade. Toss to coat and let sit 30 minutes while you make the broth.
• Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in a large wok or deep-sided skillet over medium-high. Add celery and bean sprouts and stir-fry, stirring constantly, until crisp-tender, about 1 minute. Transfer to a large deep bowl.
• Remove seeds from 6 dried chiles and cut crosswise into ¼" pieces. Pour 1 Tbsp. oil into same wok and heat over medium-high. Add coarsely chopped garlic, sliced ginger, sliced dried chiles, 6 whole dried chiles, 1 tsp. whole Sichuan peppercorns and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add bean paste and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Pour in stock and add remaining 1 tsp. ground Sichuan peppercorns. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover wok (use a baking sheet if you don't have a lid), and simmer 15 minutes to infuse broth with flavor.
• Using your hands, lift fish out of marinade, shaking to remove excess, and transfer to hot broth; discard marinade. Cook over medium-low until just opaque, about 2 minutes. Using a spider or slotted spoon, transfer fish to bowl with celery and bean sprouts, arranging on top; carefully pour broth over. Top with scallions and cilantro.
• Wipe out wok, pour in remaining 4 Tbsp. oil, and heat over high until just smoking. Add finely chopped garlic, gochugaru, sesame seeds, remaining 20 chiles, and remaining 1 tsp. whole Sichuan peppercorns and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Immediately pour over top of fish.

SHUI ZHU YU (SICHUAN BOILED FISH)

Steps:

• Stir the egg white, cornstarch, white pepper, and egg white together in a bowl; add the basa and mix to coat. Set aside and allow to marinate at least 15 minutes.
• Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat; cook and stir the peppercorns and dried chile peppers in the hot oil until they turn a very dark red (they will look almost black, so be careful not to burn the chiles). Remove the dried chili peppers and peppercorns from the skillet. Mince the chile peppers. Mash the peppercorns finely; set aside.
• Return the skillet to the medium heat and add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and the bean sauce; cook and stir the bean sauce with the oil until the mixture turns red. Stir the water into the sauce, increase heat to high and cook until the sauce simmers. Remove the ginger slices from the marinating fish and add to the boiling sauce; cook the fish at a boil until the flesh turns white.
• Divide the celery and cabbage between two soup bowls. Pour the fish and sauce over the celery and cabbage. Top with the garlic, peppercorns, and chile peppers.
• Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet over high heat until it just begins to smoke; carefully pour the hot oil over the garlic, peppercorns, and chile peppers. Garnish each portion with cilantro to serve.

SICHUAN BOILED FISH (SHUI ZHU YU, 水煮鱼)

Steps:

• Slice the fish fillet diagonally. Marinate with salt, white pepper, rice wine & corn starch.
• In a wok (or a deep frying pan), fry dried chilli and Sichuan pepper in oil over a low heat until fragrant (do not burn them). Chop coarsely when cooled. Set aside.
• In the same wok, heat up oil over a medium heat, stir in celery. Cook for 1.5 minutes or so (30 seconds if using bean sprouts instead). Transfer to a serving bowl. Set aside.
• Heat up oil in the wok, fry garlic, ginger and spring onion. Add Sichuan chilli bean paste and chilli powder. Pour in water (or chicken stock). Bring it to a full boil.
• Gently place the fish slices into the wok. When cooked, pour the fish and the soup onto the vegetable.
• Top with fried spices and coriander. Heat up oil then pour over to sizzle the spices. Serve immediately with plain rice.