There was a community fish pond near my home where I lived with my grandmother, and she would go there almost every day to catch tilapia. It was a hobby for her, and we had fish for dinner every day. She used to tell me that eating fish would be make me clever and keep her healthy. I try to coerce my daughter into this practice daily.
In traditional Cantonese cuisine, the rule is “fish is best steamed when fresh, and pan fried or hong shao when not”. Hong shao, also known as braised or “red-cooked”, gives off a salty, sweet, aromatic and umami flavour. It features soy sauce, rice wine or Shao Xing wine, sugar, aromatic herbs such as coriander or spring onion, and five-spice powder.
The key to cooking hong shao dishes is to control the heat — the correct heat reduces the sugar perfectly so that it blends with the sauces in the most delicious way. In other words, don’t leave your hong shao dish unattended, not even for a minute.
For Food Sakes
A whole fried fish is a symbol of good luck for the Chinese New Year
Yang Zhao says the key to getting it right is giving it your full attention and to control the heat
Image: Yang Zhao
There was a community fish pond near my home where I lived with my grandmother, and she would go there almost every day to catch tilapia. It was a hobby for her, and we had fish for dinner every day. She used to tell me that eating fish would be make me clever and keep her healthy. I try to coerce my daughter into this practice daily.
In traditional Cantonese cuisine, the rule is “fish is best steamed when fresh, and pan fried or hong shao when not”. Hong shao, also known as braised or “red-cooked”, gives off a salty, sweet, aromatic and umami flavour. It features soy sauce, rice wine or Shao Xing wine, sugar, aromatic herbs such as coriander or spring onion, and five-spice powder.
The key to cooking hong shao dishes is to control the heat — the correct heat reduces the sugar perfectly so that it blends with the sauces in the most delicious way. In other words, don’t leave your hong shao dish unattended, not even for a minute.
I tested this recipe several times before writing it down, amid all of the load-shedding schedules and after visiting several fishmongers to buy different types of fish to try. Finding tilapia is quite impossible in SA, which was quite baffling really, as tilapia is known to be a fresh water fish from Africa.
I remembered clearly that in fish markets in China, it was called “Africa fish”. While I struggled to find it here, the blessing of being in SA is the variety of saltwater fish we can find. For this recipe, I tried red roman (very good), red snapper (too many bones) and also baby yellow croakers (which, to my surprise, didn’t have too many bones — even the smaller fish). I’d recommend red roman for this recipe, as it’s quite readily available.
Image: Supplied
Ingredients:
1 red roman, roughly 700g-1,200g
3 tsp cooking oil
2 tsp corn starch
8 slices of ginger (3mm thick)
3 stalks of spring onion (roughly chopped into 5cm pieces)
¾ cup Shao Xing wine or rice wine
2 tsp sugar
2 ½ tsp black vinegar or any dark vinegar, preferably Asian, otherwise, aged vinegar, if it’s not fruity or balsamic
1 tsp dark soy
2 tsp light soy
Method:
• This article is adapted from one originally published on Wanted Online. Visit wantedonline.co.za for the latest in luxury lifestyle news.
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