葱姜鱼片 (ginger scallion fish fillets)

Fish fillets, with ginger and scallion

Ingredients

  • Aromatics
    • Ginger
    • Scallions
  • Sauces
    • Oyster sauce
    • Soy sauce
  • Fillets from a white fish. Sea bass is one of the traditional ones, tilapia is also great and cheaper. You can ask GPT what are the most traditional fish to use.
  • Salt/MSG/Sugar
  • White pepper
  • Black pepper
  • Cornstarch/flour
  • Shaoxing wine (for prepping the fish)

For the sauce, the ratio of soy sauce to oyster sauce is approximately 1 to 1. You could use a little more soy sauce than oyster sauce if you like, using something like 1.25 to 1, but it’s really up to you.

Cooking:

Slice the fish into fillets. The pieces shouldn’t be too thin nor thick; check out the image above. Julienne ginger and scallion, separating the scallion whites from the greens.

Cleaning the Fish (only if your smells “fishy.” If it smells clean/no aroma, then skip this): Add salt and shaoxing cooking wine to the fillets and let it sit for a bit. Rinse briefly afterwards and let dry. The purpose of this is to get rid of some of the fishy/gamey flavor. Dry the fish well (otherwise the coating will fall off when you fry it).

Coating the Fish for Frying: Sprinkle fish with salt, white pepper, and black pepper. Cover the fish generously in a cornstarch/flour mix (roughly in a cornstarch:flour = 2:1 ratio), being sure to add some of the reasonings into the cornstarch/flour mix as well.

Aside on the flour/cornstarch ratio: flour, when fried, tends to add a crunchy, heavier texture. Think about how southern fried chicken is very crunchy and is a little heavy. Cornstarch, on the other hand, is more light and crispy. Potato starch is also a great choice and is crispy as well.

The point of adding both is that the cornstarch adds a light crispiness to your fish, which complements the delicate texture of the fish. In contrast, adding some flour helps by helping the mixture stick to the fish.

Frying the Fish: heat up oil in a pan suitable for frying. We want the oil to be hot so that we can quickly fry the cornstarch coating without drying out the fish. If you fry for too long at low temperature, the fish will dry out. Put the fish fillets in, and fry until the coating is crispy and golden brown. Take the fish out and put it on a paper towel to drain excess oil.

Making the Sauce and Stir Frying: Heat your wok, and then add oil, ginger, and scllion whites. Fry until slightly browned and you can smell the flavors.

Mix the soy sauce/oyster sauce together with a little water, and add into the wok. Be careful here; soy sauce and oyster sauce burn very quickly, so you don’t want the temperature to be too high. The goal here is a balance between letting the sauce caramelize slightly, but not letting it burn. Make sure you are using a medium-low temperature so that it doesn’t burn too fast. Pro tip: keep a little water in a bowl nearby. Let the sauce caramelize for a bit, and before it starts to burn, add some additional water to cool it down.

Cook the sauce/ginger/scallion whites mixture briefly, and then add some cornstarch water to thicken the mixture. Add sugar to taste. Finally, add in the fish fillets and the scallion greens, toss briefly, and then remove to serve.