Ingredients
Fish, corn oil, seasonings (scallions, ginger, garlic, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, vinegar, cooking wine, oyster sauce, fermented soybean paste, Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, cinnamon bark, yellow soybean paste)
1. Pan-fry the fish
To keep the fish from sticking and burning, coat it with a thin layer of flour before frying. Lift the fish after coating and shake off the excess flour to prevent the hot oil from turning bitter. Pan-frying serves two purposes: the high oil temperature seals in moisture, giving the fish a crispy exterior and tender interior, and it also drives off the fishy smell that mainly comes from the skin and belly cavity by quickly searing those surfaces.
Fry the fish until both sides turn golden brown, then remove and set aside to cool.
2. Braise the fish
Heat oil in a wok, stir-fry the seasonings until fragrant, then add water to about 2/3 full.
Bring to a boil over high heat, then drop to low heat after about 10 minutes and simmer for roughly 1 hour. Finally, crank the heat back up to reduce the sauce, then plate.
3. Notes
Braised fish is the meat dish I cook most often. I’ve tried many approaches, some turned out great and some were complete failures. From hands-on experience, the key to braised fish isn’t the seasonings or even the golden pan-fry, it’s the simmering time. I once dropped a fresh fish straight into a pot of water with nothing but salt, oil, soy sauce, and vinegar, then simmered it slowly for 2 hours. The result was something special, pure fish flavor in its simplest form. So a lot of the steps above might just be window dressing. What really matters is the 2/3 pot of water and that 1 hour of slow simmering. Give it a try and see what happens during that hour.