Hot Fish Sichuan Style - Shui Zu Yu

Recipe for a hot fish dish of classical Chinese Sichuan cuisine

Typical for Chinese Sichuan cuisine is the combination of chili and pepper in a spicy oil sauce. The fish is marinated in a starch sauce and cooked, and therefore remains tender and juicy. The spicy chili oil sauce - a real taste explosion.

Ingredients

500 g sea bass
1 piece of ginger (3 cm)
10 Sichuan Facing Heaven chillies, whole dried
5 scallions
4 cloves of garlic
2 tsp Shaoxing rice wine or Sherry
2 tblsp chili bean paste (Doubanjiang)
1 tblsp cornstarch
peanut oil
2 star anise
1 large cassia bark
1 tblsp Sichuan pepper
salt

Preparation

For the marinade mix together the rice wine, corn starch and 3 tsp salt in a large bowl. Cut the fish into thin slices (about 1 cm thick) and let it marinade for 15 to 30 minutes.
Peel ginger and garlic and cut into thin slices. Chop the scallions into 0,5 cm thick rings.
Heat up 1 tblsp of peanut oil in a wok, add star anise, cassia bark and 1 tsp of chili bean paste and stir fry for around 2 minutes until you can smell the aroma. Then remove the cassia bark and the star anise.
Add garlic, ginger and white part of green onion and fry for around 1 minute, then add half of the Sichuan pepper corns and half of the dried Sichuan chili peppers and fry on medium heat until you smell the tastes and the onions begin to soften. Set aside in a serving bowl.
In the wok, bring three cups of water to the boil, then reduce the heat and add 2 tsp salt. Then add the fish and boil until it is white. Do not stir so that it does not lose the starch coat. Remove the fish with a foam spoon and place on the spicy sauce.
In the wok again heat 2 tbsp peanut oil and heat the remaining Szechuan pepper and the remaining chillies. After a few minutes, add this mixture over the fish. Then garnish with the remaining green scallion rings.
Serve hot with steamed rice.


Image source: Fotolia #37094825 © Cozyta