25 Nov 2010 No Comments
Traditional Chinese Whole Fish and Watercress Recipes
Some of my cooking is kind of all more than the place-fusion, breakaway, whatever you need to call it-it’s hardly conventional. However, with regards to tankless water heaters Chinese cooking, I’m a purist at heart, and I’m a firm disciple of my dad’s cooking. It is nice to be home. See an extremely traditional, homestyle Chinese meal that is fancy enough for entertaining: whole fish with soft tofu in a soy sauce broth and stir-fried watercress. The bitter, crunchy watercress pairs perfectly using the sweet, soft tofu and white-fleshed fish. Both recipes use what I like to call the hard money lenders “Holy Trinity”: garlic, ginger, and scallions. It’s rare that a Chinese recipe will call for all three. Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly oil a 9×11-inch cooking dish and set aside. Rinse fish and pat it dry, then rub it in and out with salt. Transfer to the well prepared baking dish and mix cavity and exterior with scallions, cilantro and ginger. As much as I prefer steadicam whole grains, white short-grain rice is the way to go here. When I was little and ate literally nothing but bread, rice, and McDonalds, I happily slurped this soy sauce broth with white rice, and brown rice just doesn’t absorb it as well. Ingredients: A 2 lb freshwater fish, cleaned and gutted; 1 package silken tofu, cut once lengthwise and six times microdermabrasion machines crosswise; A large chunk of ginger, peeled and sliced into matchsticks; 3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced; 1-2 bunches scallions, cut into ½-inch segments; Peanut oil; Soy sauce; Cooking wine; 1 TBS sugar; Salt to taste; 1 TBS cornstarch, dissolved in water. Scrape scales off fish if necessary and rinse under cold water. Heat peanut oil in a metal detector wok until smoking—lightly fry the fish to eliminate any fishy odor. Flip the fish to fry the other side (this is bad luck in China, analogous to “flipping a boat,” but whatever). Pour off and discard the oil. Put the fish on a separate plate. Heat more oil in the wok, then add the garlic, scallions, and ginger. Return the fish to the wok. Heat a combination of water, soy sauce, cooking wine, sugar and salt in the same wok until boiling. Transfer the fish to another plate. Add the cornstarch-water mixture and tofu and simmer. Pour the tofu-mixture on to the fish. Serve. Stir-fried Watercress . Ingredients: TBS peanut oil; A 2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced; 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced; 2 bunches of watercress, washed. Salt and Water. Heat oil till it smokes, then add ginger and garlic. Let them burn slightly. Add watercress, salt, and a little water. Stir-fry till the watercress wilts (should be a matter of seconds), then lower the heat and cook off some of the water. Adjust seasoning to taste and serve. You shouldn’t have to fear cooking a whole fish. Here’s easy preparation that brings together fragrant scallions, cilantro and ginger with a salty-sweet glaze. Ask your fish monger for fish suggestions if red snapper is not obtainable. Mix tamari with honey, five-spice powder, pepper and peanut oil. Drizzle over fish. Make a water bath by placing the baking dish in the larger baking pan and filling the bottom of the larger pan with hot water to come a half-inch up the sides of the pan. Cover both pans with heavy foil, making a tent out of the foil and sealing tightly throughout the edges of the larger pan. Bake fish for 35 to 45 minutes or until flesh is opaque and flakes with a fork. Serve immediately. Per serving: 270 calories (60 from fat), 6g total fat, 1g saturated fat, 48g protein, 3g total carbohydrate (much less than 1g dietary fiber, 2g sugar), 85mg cholesterol, 840mg sodium.