Fish in Hot Garlic Sauce

I am posting a Chinese recipe after a long time; earlier posts include this Burnt Ginger Rice, Sizzling Sesame Noodles and Vegetables in Hot Garlic Sauce. This is the first time I have cooked fish Chinese style; though we love Oriental cooking a lot and enjoy trying new dishes when we eat out, Chinese cooking at home is usually a last minute idea and so restricted to pan fried noodles and a vegetable stir fry. This time though I planned Sunday lunch to incorporate some nice sole I had at home. Once I decided to cook it Chinese style, making a vegetable fried rice to go with it was easy business.

The fish was marinated in lime juice and then patted in cornflour and fried. The sauce was extremely easy too – finely chopped ginger and garlic, oyster sauce and red chilli paste went into it and it was thickened with cornflour. The fried fish was put in at the end and finished with vinegar and freshly crushed black pepper. The whole dish took me about 25 minutes to cook from start to finish.

I usually don’t fry fish, so this was a first for me – but it wasn’t greasy like I expected and needed to remain in the hot oil for just under 4 minutes. This dish is definitely a crowd pleaser – the oyster sauce gives it a nice consistency and the fresh ginger and garlic add great flavor.

Fish in Hot Garlic Sauce

Fish fillets - 300 gms
Cornflour - 4-5 tbsp
Onion - 1
Ginger - 1 " piece
Garlic - 3-4 cloves chopped finely
Green chillies - 3-4
Oyster Sauce - 2 tbsp
Red chilli paste - 1 tbsp
Sugar - 1 tsp
salt to taste
Chilli vinegar - 1 tbsp
Freshly crushed peppercorns - 1 tsp
Oil - 3 tbsp

1. Clean and pat dry fish, cut into 2 " pieces and marinate with lemon juice and salt for about 10 minutes
2. Heat sufficient oil in a wok, roll the fish pieces in 3 tbsp cornflour and deep fry for 2-3 minutes. Drain and keep aside
3. Finely slice onion, garlic and ginger; slit the green chillies
4. Dissolve 2 tbsp of cornflour in one cup of water. Mix the oyster sauce, sugar and salt with one cup of water
5. Heat 3 tbsp oil in a wok, add the onion, green chillies, ginger and garlic and stir fry for a minute
Add the red chilli paste fry for one more minute, then the oyster sauce mixture and bring to boil.
6. Add the blended cornflour and cook for 2 minutes till the sauce starts to thicken.
7. Add the fried fish pieces and cook for a minute more, adding some more water if needed.
8. Stir in vinegar and the crushed pepper ; serve hot with Chinese Fried Rice.

Sizzling Sesame Noodles

The last of the three dishes I made for a delicious dinner, you can find the burnt ginger rice and vegetables in hot garlic sauce here and here. All recipes are adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor's "Best of Chinese Cooking".

This one has the lovely taste of sesame and peanuts in it, something which is very much appreciated by our Indian palates. It's a simple recipe and cooks very fast - ideal for impromptu dinners since the ingredients are usually readily available in most of our kitchens.

The original recipe had bean sprouts in it,which I replaced with green pepper.

This recipe is quite high on the heat meter, so cut down on the green chillies and chilli sauce if you would prefer it less spicy.

Sizzling Sesame Noodles

Ingredients:

Noodles - 200 gms

Sesame oil (Til oil) - 1 tbsp

Spring onions - 2

Green chillies - 1

Garlic - 3-4 cloves

Roasted peanuts - 1/4 cup

Oil - 1 tbsp

Soy sauce - 1 tbsp

Chilli sauce - 2 tbsp

Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp

Green pepper - 1 sliced

salt to taste

Toasted white sesame seeds (ellu in Tamil, til in hindi) - 1 tbsp

Vinegar - 1 tbsp

1. Boil noodles in sufficient water till just about cooked. Remove, drain well and mix in sesame oil. Keep aside.

2. Slice spring onions finely, chop the greens and keep aside for garnish. Peel and finely chop garlic. Crush roasted peanuts coarsely.

3. Heat oil in a wok, add garlic, green chillies, spring onions and stir fry on high for 2 minutes.

4. Add boiled noodles, soy sauce, chilli sauce, pepper powder, salt to taste and stir fry for 2-3 minutes.

5. Add crushed peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, green pepper and vinegar; continue cooking on high heat for a minute tossing continuously. Serve hot.

Vegetables in Hot Garlic Sauce

The Chinese meal I was planning for dinner needed a nice gravy to go with the ginger rice and the sesame noodles. We like lots of gravy with our noodles and the spicier the better.

So I adapted a recipe from Sanjeev Kapoor's "Best of Chinese Cooking" - Hot Garlic Babycorn.

I added lots more vegetables and altered the cooking method too. The babycorn is coated with cornflour and deep fried in the original recipe.

Vegetables in Hot Garlic Sauce

Ingredients:

Babycorn - 10 sliced into 2 " pieces

Green Peppers - 2 cut into half inch squares

Mushroom - 7-8 washed thoroughly and sliced

Red chillies - 2-3

Spring onion - 2 finely sliced

Onion - 1 medium cut into quarters and layers separated

Garlic - 10-12 cloves finely chopped

Red chilli tomato paste - 2 tbsp

Soak 2 dried red chillies in 1/4 cup warm water for half an hour, blend to a paste with 1 tomato

Vinegar - 1 tbsp

Hoisin sauce - 2 tbsp

Cornflour - 2 tsbp blended with 1 cup water

Salt to taste

Vegetable stock - 1 cup

Sesame oil (Til oil) - 1 tbsp

Red chilli flakes - 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Heat sesame oil in a wok, break red chillies and add to it, add chopped garlic and fry 1 minute.

2. Add spring onion, onion,babycorn, mushrooms, green peppers and fry on high for 2-3 minutes stirring continuously.

3. Add red chilli tomato paste,vinegar, hoisin sauce, salt and vegetable stock and cook on high for 1 minute.

4. Stir in blended cornflour and cook till it starts to thicken. Approx 2-3 minutes.

5. Sprinkle red chilli flakes and serve hot.

Burnt Ginger Rice

I started cooking Chinese cuisine from Sanjeev Kapoor's "Best of Chinese Cooking". Its been a while though since I last cooked from that book, since there have been other favourite and more authentic recipes I have found.

There are some recipes though which I love and I unearthed the book one evening and decided to cook a full meal from it. I don't stick to the recipes ; invariably adding and subtracting from it.

This is the first of the three dishes I made that evening - Burnt Ginger Rice - really love the flavour of ginger in it, nothing else to distract. I did try adding vegetables once, but realised that it's better to have it just like that. The other dishes can do the flowery talking.

I adapted the recipe from the book and made some changes;

The original recipe had an onion and not spring onions.

Tomato sauce and red chilli paste was used which I replaced with red chilli tomato paste; I hate the taste of sweet tomato sauce in cooked food.

I do not use ajinomoto in cooking.

You could add mixed sliced vegetables to the rice, for a more substantial meal.

Burnt Ginger Rice

Ingredients:

Short Grained rice - 1 cup
Spring Onion - 2-3 with green part
Ginger - Four 1 " pieces
Oil - 2-3 tbsp
Soy sauce - 1 tsp
Red chilli tomato paste - 1 tbsp
Soak 2-3 dried red chillies in1/4 cup hot water for half hour,thenblend to a paste with 1 tomato.
Salt to taste
Vinegar - 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Soak rice in 6 cups water for an hour, drain water and bring it to boiling in a large pot, add the rice and let it cook till it is just tender. Drain water and cool.

2. Finely slice onion, chop the green part, peel and thinly slice ginger.

3. Heat oil in a wok, add sliced ginger and stir for for 2-3 minutes till the ginger turns brown, remove and drain. Reserve some pieces for garnish, finely chop remaining ginger.

4. Reheat oil in wok, add chopped fried ginger and onion, stir fry for about 2 minutes. Add cooked rice, soy sauce, red chilli tomato paste and salt to taste.

5. Cook on high heat for 1 minute, stirring continuously. Add vinegar and serve hot garnished with fried ginger slices and chopped spring onion greens.