← Nouns Cooking · Chinese

Ingredients

• 450 g skinless white fish fillets (catfish, basa, tilapia or cod), sliced 5 mm thick at an angle
• 1 egg white
• 1 tbsp Cornflour (cornstarch)
• ½ tsp salt, for the fish
• ¼ tsp White pepper
• 300 g Sichuan pickled mustard greens (suan cai), rinsed, squeezed and sliced
• 6 pickled chillies (or fresh red chillies), sliced
• 6 cloves Garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp Ginger, minced
• 3 Spring onion, whites cut into lengths, greens sliced
• 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 1 l chicken stock
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 3 tbsp neutral oil, divided
• 15 Dried chillies
• 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
• 3 tbsp neutral oil

Method

1. Rinse the fish slices, pat dry and mix with the egg white, salt and pepper, then the cornflour, until each slice is lightly coated. Leave for 10 min.
2. Heat 3 tbsp oil in a wok over medium heat. Fry the ginger, garlic, spring-onion whites and pickled chillies for 1 minute until fragrant. Add the mustard greens and stir-fry for 3 min, until they smell sharp and slightly toasty.
3. Splash in the wine, add the stock and sugar and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 min so the broth turns tangy and golden. Taste and add salt if needed.
4. Turn the heat down to a gentle simmer. Slide in the fish slices one by one, spreading them out, and leave untouched for 2–3 min, until they turn white and just firm. Gently pour everything into a large deep bowl.
5. Scatter the dried chillies, Sichuan pepper and spring-onion greens over the top. Heat the 3 tbsp oil in a clean pan until shimmering, then pour it over the spices so they sizzle. Serve at once with rice.

Tips

• Look for "suan cai" (Sichuan sour cabbage) in vacuum packs at Chinese grocers; rinse it so the broth is not too salty.
• Contains egg.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Omnivore's Cookbook Red House Spice