55. Chinese sweet and sour fish (northeast style)

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Sweet and sour fish

糖醋鱼

I know I have mentioned the “sweet and sour taste” many times, but I am not very much used to the real Cantonese style “sweet and sour” sauce -- a bit too sweet for me. ( Well, not much of a surprise, I don’t even like to have sugar in my black coffee). And if you have come across my previous post, you probably already know what I mean by difference between northern and southern sweet and sour sauces.

Sweet and sour fish in Northern China

So this northeast "sugar and vinegar fish" dish is equivalent to the Cantonese style “sweet and sour” fish, I think, but the name is “tang cu yu”. If you translate the name literally, in Mandarin, it would be “Sugar and vinegar fish”. However, although the taste of the two dishes might be very similar, the sauce and the actual type of fish used are rather different, so is the presentation. :)


For the fish, in the North East of China we use “Carp” very often for home cooking, which also carries some symbolic meaning. The pronunciation of “carp” in Chinese is “Li yu/鲤鱼”, in which, “li”(3)鲤 shares almost the same pronunciation with the character “利” (4)（“profit / benefit”. Hence, it has been very popular to use the image of “carp” to symbolize good life, for example, in the typical Chinese new year posters, a boy riding on a ‘big’ fish is one of the most popular posters representing better and better life in the coming year.

image source:http://www.china001.com/show_hdr.php?xname=PPDDMV0&dname=UA4Q541&xpos=7

Well, not much to do with the actual food, but if you order the original “sugar and vinegar fish” in northern China, the fish (carp) is normally presented as if it was going to jump, very similar to the poster. (As mentioned in another post, in northeast cuisine, fish is kept as a whole with head and tail when presented on the table.) And the sauce, which is made up with sugar and vinegar and tomato sauce, is poured on the top of the fish.

But, in this post… as mentioned before, I will use boneless fish instead -- there will be no fish ‘jumping’ on the plate :)), but still good for a fish treat. :)

Here you go.

The recipe: Chinese sweet and sour fish

Ingredients:

Fish (I used boneless white fish)

Sugar, vinegar, egg, flour, corn flour, salt, oil, onion, ginger.

Preparation

1)Chop the fish into smaller pieces, and coated with egg, flour and water mix. (Exactly same as I have done many times before.)

2)Peel and chop 1 onion and a good piece of ginger into thin strips.

3)Mix a full teaspoon of corn flour with water, for thickening the sauce later.

Cooking

1)In a heated wok, pour around 3 cups of oil. (At least enough to cover the fish pieces when frying).

2)When the oil is hot enough, put coated fish pieces into the oil one by one for frying.

3)When the surface of the fish pieces turns ‘brown’, and is crispy, remove them from the oil.

4) Remove oil from the wok, but remain around 2 tablespoons in it.

5) Add chopped onion and ginger into the wok, along with around 3 tablespoons of tomato sauce or ketchup.

6) When the onion gets soft a little bit, and the smell of onion and ginger comes out, add 1 tablespoon of cooking wine, 1 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar into the wok.

7)And the corn flour mix into the wok, and stir everything together well.

8)When the sauce in the wok is getting thicker ( you will see some bubbling), add pre-fried fish in.

9)Once the sauce generally coated on the fish pieces, turn off the fire and remove the fish to the plate quickly.

Chinese sweet and sour fish

----- Here you go, done!

Prepare it for a romantic dinner, you will not get complain. :)
I like to have it with boiled rice, but with beer for summer is also not bad choice. :)

24. Chinese sweet and sour mince balls

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Chinese sweet and sour mince balls

糖醋丸子

This is another Chinese meat dish I like to make and eat from time to time. It does take a little bit time to prepare, but not too long though, and it is still considered as a ‘homey’ dish, as in restaurants you can usually find a more complicated,  fancier version of it. :)

Chinese sweet and sour mince balls

This dish is called  ‘Tang Cu Wan Zi’  in Chinese, which literally means  ‘sugar and vinegar balls’. In English, however, it is normally translated as ‘sweet and sour meat balls’. If you have read my previous post , you may already know that vinegar and sugar constitute the essence of sweet an sour taste. In Chinese, we often name dishes according to the ingredients they  contain, rather than according to their final taste!

As I also mentioned in a previous post, a round shape (referred to as  ‘tuan yuan’ in Chinese) often represents family reunion. Hence, dishes like ‘Mid Autumn Day’. In my ethnic group, mince balls are almost a ‘must have’ for every important occasion. 

I remember I used to help my auntie to roll the mince balls for Chinese new year meals, it was such an important thing. Making the mince balls look beautiful was very time consuming, as we had to roll them by hand.

In this recipe, however,

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Chinese sweet and sour (vinegar and sugar)

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Before you completely get bored of me saying ‘add vinegar, then sugar’, I think I’d better talk about it first. :))

Couple of years ago, when I had to go back to Manchester every week, a really nice friend put me up for the night, as return, (and if I wasn’t lazy), I would cook him dinner - that is where crispy beef from, it became one of his favorites. One day, he asked me what I put in every dish, I said, “this one, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and sugar, and that one, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and sugar…”, by the third dish, he could already recite “ oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and sugar…”  He laughed, probably thought I was joking, I laughed.. with a bit embarrassment.  Well, it wasn’t my fault, I couldn’t find any other seasonings, so tried to use the mixture of vinegar and sugar to give the dishes some flavor. :)) (Actually, I was wrong, he has lots Chinese seasonings in the kitchen, I did not look for it enough.)

Sugar in Chinese cooking

The first time my friends learnt that there was sugar in most of Chinese recipes, they were very surprised --- because it is difficult to tell only by the taste. The sweetness of sugar normally mixes into the sauce along with the other ingredients to bring out the flavor,  (don't be surprised, sometimes there is also a pinch of salt in cakes). But when sugar mixes with vinegar, the taste is different.

Well, the actual taste of the dish depends on how much of each you put in. For example, in the http://cookingsimplechinesefoodathome.blogspot.com/2011/04/5-guo-bao-rou-our-version-of-sweet-and.html> crispy beef dish , I put quite a lot of vinegar and sugar to get the very ‘obvious’ mixed sweet and sour taste. In some Chinese salads, however, although I put same amount of vinegar and sugar, the sweet taste of sugar and sourness from vinegar do not mix into a single  ‘sweet and sour’ taste and you can taste sweetness and sourness separately. This is because of the  juice coming from the vegetables, and the fact that it is a cold dish,  --- am I talking clearly? Also, you probably already notice, in some stir-fry dishes, only a little vinegar and sugar is needed ---it is hard to tell any ‘sweetness and sourish’ at all, but the taste of the dish is enriched. Don’t even mention by putting more sugar or more vinegar, the taste of the dish will also be changed. --- I like to think it is the magic of ‘vinegar and sugar’. It sounds funny, but it is true.

The Chinese vinegar

The vinegar I normally use is rice vinegar, which I already mentioned in ‘At the beginning’, and sugar is white sugar (for some time, I didn’t like the idea of using normal sugar, so I used fruit sugar instead, it works the same -- I know in the bakery, it is different.) I have mentioned a few time about ‘old vinegar’, I have been asked by friends how it is called on the label ---- lately I found it in Tesco. In Northeast dishes, it normally goes with spinach salad, or stir-fried cabbage, or as dip for dumplings. It doesn’t have to be combined with sugar, if you want to add sugar, only a little bit is enough. It cannot replace rice vinegar in normal dishes, otherwise the taste would be strange.

--- don’t know if it is enough explanation, but you can try different proportions of  sugar and vinegar in the mix, you will know what I mean. :)

5. Chinese crispy beef (Guo bao rou)

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Chinese crispy beef

锅包肉

This is our version of Sweet and sour crispy beef - a weekend dish.

Actually, a little bit late for the weekend dish now… sorry, probably next weekend?


Saying it is a weekend dish is because it will take a little more time, 10 mins more - probably? :)) and it is a little bit ‘complicated’, people normally don’t cook it during the week days or even at home at all.


I never really loved any meat dish since I was little; however, this was one of the only fews I would order in the restaurant. And I have the treat whenever  I go to my auntie’s, my lovely uncle would cook for me at very high standard.:))) ( oh, he is a very good chef, taught me lots.)  I learnt this from him.. well, till now, I still cannot cook to his level. :)

Chinese crispy beef

This dish is called Guo Bao Rou in Chinese in .. actually I am not sure it is only called like that only within my ethnic group or in the whole North of China.

Guo Bao Rou literally means the wok wraps meat, Rou means meat in general, but there is another dish in other places with very similar taste called “Hui Guo Rou", literately means putting the meat back to wok to cook.

Whichever, this is the dish:

It is normally a beef dish for my ethnic group people, however, if you walk in a normal restaurant in the Northeast of China, it is normally cooked with pork instead. The taste is -- sweet and sour source wraps crispy beef.

In the North of China, we often joke and say that this is a lady’s dish, because of its soft touch of sweet and sour without very sharp or strong taste. :))) It is different to the ‘sweet and sour’ you get in Chinese restaurant or takeaways here.

Chinese Guo bao Rou recipe

Ingredients

Beef : it is normally lean steak, which it has to be sliced in a very thin layer. I can't distinguish very well among the different beef cuts, so I either I would walk into the local butcher, tell them I want a piece of beef for frying, they would nicely choose one piece for me, or I just go to M&S (the nearest supermarket) to get the ‘quick fry steak’. Lazy me, really need to learn more. :)

Egg , flour , light soy sauce , salt, ginger , spring onion , tomato sauce (or ketchup), rice vinegar , white sugar , corn flour , cooking wine.

Again, cooking the dish involves two steps: 1) frying the steak; 2) ‘wrap’ with the sauce.

Preparation:

1) Slice the beef: the ideal piece is not too small, at least 6-8cm long, and thin-- as thin as you can slice. (having a sharp knife in hand helps a lot :0)

2) Preparing the ‘coating batter’: beat one egg in the bowl, then put flour in, a little bit water, half teaspoon of salt, a few drops of light soy sauce, mix well, then put sliced beef in.

3) Chopping a piece of ginger and a whole spring onion into strips.

4) Place one and half spoon of corn flour, mix well with (4-5 table spoons) of water.

Cooking

1) Pour oil into the wok, 2cm or more, turn on the fire to medium.

2) When the oil is heated up, place well coated beef with batter into the oil, keep on turning until both sides are well cooked, place the meat on a plate.

3) Refry the meat -- Ok, this is a trick I learned from my uncle. After frying the beef with coated batter, let it cool down for a little bit, then turn on the fire, heat up the oil again, refry the meat, this way can make the surface of the meat very crispy.

4) Put the cleaned wok back on a high fire, pour in a bit oil, half cup of tomato sauce (or ketchup), 2 table spoons white sugar, 1 table spoon of cooking wine, 2-3 table spoons of rice vinegar, chopped spring onion and ginger at last.

5) After mixing everything together, pour in prepared corn flour-water mix.

6) When the sauce starts showing bubbles, put well-fried meat pieces in, allow the sauce wrap the meat pieces well, then remove everything to a plate.

Chinese guo bao rou

---------- Et voila!


The steps 4-6 need to be done very quickly, the main reason is not to let surface of the meat pieces soak into the sauce, and becomes softer, the sauce is supposed to be just hung on the surface. So the first bite is crispy, then you taste the sweet and sour.  Although it is oil-fried, it is not greasy, especially with the fresh smell of the spring onion and ginger - it is just freshness of the meat. :))

---Do you like? :)))