Abalone Sauce Chinese Broccoli Fish (鮑魚醬芥蘭魚, Baau1 Jyu4 Zoeng3 Gaai3 Laan4 Jyu4)

As with any stir fried fish dish, a firm fleshed fish is necessary so that the fish pieces remain intact during cooking. Fresh fish fillets, rather than frozen, are preferable, but frozen fillets will work. Lee Kum Kee brand abalone sauce is used to make this fish dish and is now my preferred brand. The sauce was just recently released for sale in the USA and can be purchased at your local Asian market.

Enjoy!

Black Bean Chili Sauce Chicken and Mixed Mushroom Fish Balls (黑豆辣椒菇魚蛋雞, Hak1 Dau6 Laat6 Ziu1 Gu1 Jyu4 Daan6 Gai1)

Using seafood and meat in a dish is a classic combination in Chinese cooking. In this case chicken is used as the meat and mixed mushroom fish balls are the seafood in a mildly spicy sauce. This dish is a variation on the Chili Paste with Fermented Soy Bean Chicken and Mixed Mushroom Fish Balls (湖南豆豉辣椒菇魚蛋雞, Wu⁴ Naam⁴ Dau⁶ Si⁶ Laat⁶ Ziu¹ Gu¹ Jyu⁴ Daan⁶ Gai¹) recipe. If you like a spicy black bean sauce, this is the dish for you.

Enjoy!

Chili Paste with Fermented Soy Bean Chicken and Mixed Mushroom Fish Balls (湖南豆豉辣椒菇魚蛋雞, Wu4 Naam4 Dau6 Si6 Laat6 Ziu1 Gu1 Jyu4 Daan6 Gai1)

Using seafood and meat in a dish is a classic combination in Chinese cooking. In this case chicken is used as the meat and mixed mushroom fish balls are the seafood in a mildly spicy sauce. The more unusual ingredient in this recipe is the mixed mushroom fish balls. Fish balls are a fairly common ingredient in Chinese cooking and is used mainly in hot pots and soups, but can also be stir fried. When stir fried, fish balls are easier to cook and eat when cut in half. Fish balls, which mainly consist of ground fish, can be found in the refrigerated or frozen section of your local Asian market, and come in many varieties (i.e. the type of fish used). Mixed mushroom fish balls have bits of mushroom mixed in with the ground fish. If you’re lucky enough to have your local Asian market sell fish balls already thawed in the refrigerated section, all you have to do to use them is to cut them in half before stir frying. If mixed mushroom fish balls are not available, any other fish ball can be substituted.

Enjoy!

Sugar Snap Pea Fish with Cloud Ear Fungus (雲耳蜜豆炒魚, Wan4 Ji5 Mat6 Dau6 Caau2 Jyu4)

You need to use some technique whenever making a stir fried fish dish. First of all, the selection of the fish is important. You want to use a firm fleshed fish for stir frying so that it doesn’t break up when stir fried. The best advice is to pick the freshest firm fish fillet that you can find at your local market, but frozen works well too. Secondly, you want to cut the fillets into large pieces to help keep the pieces intact when stir fried. Small pieces of fish don’t survive stir frying very well. Finally, when stir frying the dish, you have to be gentle when mixing the dish together to minimize the fish breaking into small pieces. It’s also easy to mask the flavor of the fish with the sauce, so since a white fleshed fish was used in this dish, a simple soy based sauce was used.

Enjoy!

Chili Garlic Sauce String Bean Fish (蒜蓉辣椒青豆角魚, Syun3 Jung4 Laat6 Ziu1 Ceng1 Dau6 Gok3 Jyu4)

Firm white flesh fish fillet pieces can be stir fried, but you have to be gentle so as not to break up the pieces. You don’t want to cut the fish fillet into pieces smaller than 2-inches (5 cm.), which would seem to be too big, but smaller pieces would likely break up when stir fried. For some reason, the picture has uncut string beans, but to make them easier to eat, the string beans really should be cut into pieces, and the recipe reflects this.

 

Enjoy!

Fried Fish Cake and Ground Pork with Bean Sauce (豆瓣魚片豬肉, Dau6 Faan6 Jyu4 Pin3 Zyu1 Juk6)

Fried fish cake, sometimes labeled as fried fish tempura, is available already prepared in the refrigerated section of your local Asian market. Purchasing already prepared is the easiest way to make this dish, rather than frying the fish cakes yourself. The fish cakes are paired with ground pork, which is a classic preparation in Chinese cooking. The contrast in texture comes from the cloud ear fungus, which is slightly crunchy. In this particular case, strips of the fungus were used, but whole can also be substituted. As usual, red chili peppers are optional, but they add some color to the dish and some spiciness.

Enjoy!

Fried Catfish in Black Bean Sauce (豆豉炸鮎魚, Dau6 Si6 Zaa3 Nim4 Jyu4)

At my local Asian market, fried catfish pieces are occasionally available already cooked and ready to eat. This is a great way to get fried fish since I rarely fry fish myself at home. Catfish and black bean sauce is a classic combination, and I cheated again using a Lee Kum Kee brand prepared sauce. So the only real work in preparing this dish is cutting the bell peppers.

Enjoy!

Chicken and Fish Balls with Black Bean Chili Sauce (魚蛋黑豆辣椒油鷄, Jyu4 Daan6 Hak1 Dau6 Laat6 Ziu1 Jau4 Gai1)

This recipe was updated on 06 May 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

I was actually going to make another dish until I saw the one pound (454 g.) package of frozen fish balls at my local Asian market. Fish balls are made like other meatballs, ground meat (in this case fish) mixed together and formed into balls. Fish balls are most commonly used in soups and are also served deep fried. I guess you could make fish ball spaghetti with them too! Fish isn’t the only flavor available, you can also get prawn and cuttlefish balls at your local Asian market. So I decided to combine the fish balls with chicken and green string beans and used Laoganma brand black bean chili sauce to finish the dish. It turns out that chicken and fish balls makes a tasty combination.

Enjoy!

Hot Bean Sauce Fish with Asparagus (辣豆辦醬蘆筍斑腩, Laat6 Dau6 Faan6 Zoeng3 Lou4 Seon2 Baan1 Naam5)

 

This recipe was updated on 12 Jul 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

Fish fillets in hot bean sauce is a classic Chinese dish and using asparagus is a Western addition to the dish, with Shiitake mushrooms adding another flavor. I used coin mushrooms in this dish, which are small, coin-sized Shiitake mushrooms – the Cantonese translation is “Gold Coin Mushroom”. If coin mushrooms are not available at your local Asian market, just use regular Shiitake mushrooms cut into pieces.

The root end of the asparagus has a tough skin. The usual advice is to take the root end of the asparagus in one hand and the tip end with the other, snap the asparagus (it breaks at the natural tough-tender skin boundary), and discard the root end and use the tip end. However that results in a lot of waste (in my opinion) since the center of the root end is still tender and edible, it’s just the skin that’s tough. So I’ve found that if you use a vegetable peeler, you can remove the tough outer skin and use the entire asparagus stalk. It takes some practice to just remove the asparagus’ tough skin. My first efforts using a vegetable peeler resulted in breaking the stalks and/or peeling too much of the asparagus at the root end, so I had some odd looking asparagus pieces. I’ve tried using a knife to remove the skin, but I’ve found that with practice the vegetable peeler removes less of the asparagus stalk root end’s tender center.

Enjoy!

Steamed Fish Fillets with Chinese Broccoli (芥蘭蒸斑腩, Gaai3 Laan4 Zing1 Baan1 Naam5)

This recipe was updated on 15 Oct 2014. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

Fish fillets are a great option for steaming since they’re easy and fast to prepare and cook. In fact the preparation time is longer than the actual cooking time. My local Asian market happened to have Rockfish fillets on sale, so they were the choice for this dish, but you can use any firm white-flesh fish. The recipe is very similar to the previously posted Steamed Fish (蒸魚, Zing¹ Jyu⁶) recipe and this version is a good choice if you’re in a hurry and looking for an easy way to have some fish! Since the cooking time is so short using fish fillets, the Chinese broccoli is cooked together with the fish.

Enjoy!

Rock Cod with Salted Olives (Haam4 Gaam3 Laam5 Sek6 Baan1, 鹹橄欖石斑)

Any firm fleshed fish will work for this dish, and you can either buy fillets or fillet the fish yourself. In this case a rock cod (sek⁶ baan¹, 石斑) tail was available at the Asian market. Instead of using salted black beans (dau⁶ si⁶, 豆豉), I used salted olives (haam⁴ gaam³ laam⁵, 鹹橄欖), which gives the dish a different flavor. You need to chop and soak the salted olives before using them (but don’t soak for too long or you’ll lose the salted olive flavor).

Enjoy!

Rock Cod with Wood Ear Fungus (Muk6 Ji5 Sek6 Baan1, 木耳石斑)

This is actually a very fast dish to cook, but it does take a little over an hour of preparation time. Any firm fleshed fish will work for this dish, and you can either buy fillets or fillet the fish yourself. In this case a rock cod (sek⁶ baan¹, 石斑) tail was available at the Asian market and I filleted the fish myself. Add some wood ear fungus (muk⁶ ji⁵, 木耳) and you have your complete dish.

Enjoy!

Steamed Fish (蒸魚, Zing1 Jyu6)

 

This recipe was updated on 18 Aug 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

When I was a small child, I didn’t like fish. Now that I’m and adult, it’s one of my favorites. Whenever my family gets together at a Chinese restaurant, a steamed whole fish is almost always on the menu. Whenever I prepare fish at home, a whole fish is usually too much (food), so I get a fish tail, in this case a black bass. The advantage to getting a whole fish is that you get the freshest fish (since you pick the fish from the tank to be dispatched) and you get to eat the fish cheeks (the most delectable part), while with the fish tail, the fish has already been dispatched and prepared some time before. While the best tasting fish is “freshly dead” (for you Young Frankenstein fans), almost “freshly dead” isn’t too bad. Regardless if the fish is whole or not, the cooking technique is the same.

 

I’ve always steamed the fish and just left it in its juices, but after looking at the Steamed Fish Recipe at Rasa Malaysia, removing the fish from cooking juice before serving is a better method. This also makes for a better presentation, since you can steam the fish in one plate and then place it on a platter with freshly cooked vegetables if you choose to do so. The recipe’s steaming time is for 8 minutes, which seems like a short amount of time since I’ve always steamed fish for 15 minutes, but 8 minutes works great. Now I steam fish for 8 minutes.

The fish is always finished with heated oil and a soy sauce mixture. You can use a small pot or a wok to heat the mixtures, but I’ve been using the microwave to heat the soy sauce mixture. As always, you need to be very careful when you pour heated oil and liquids on the fish, as the hot oil and liquid will pop and splatter off the fish. Finally, the fish was placed on a bed of baby bok choy. This is optional and while it does make for a good presentation, you need to precook the baby bok choy before putting the steamed fish on it. Again, I use the microwave to zap the baby bok choy on the presentation plate.

Enjoy!