Fish Fillets in Black Bean Sauce 豉汁魚片

Families and Friends, it's time again! So today I will show you how to make a classic dish, Fish Fillets in Black Bean Sauce. It's very simple and delicious. This dish will use some of the left over vegetable from the previous dish Singapore Mei Fun.

Ok let's cook some fish!!

Ingredients

• 1 lbs fish fillet(any fish fillet) (cut up an inch length)
• 1/4 red and bell pepper(cut up square pcs)
• 1/4 yellow onion (cut up square pcs)optional
• 2 slice ginger(strips/minced)
• 2 clove garlic(minced)
• 1 green onion(diced)
• 1 tbs preserved black bean(washed and drained)

Cut fish into smaller sizes. Anywhere from 1.5 inches to 2 inches.

Similarly, you want the cut the bell peppers around the same size as well.

Chinese dried black beans have a lot of very strong flavors. I soak mine in water to mild down the saltiness a bit. Then I drain them.

Fish Coating

• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1 egg
• 1/2 ts salt
• 1 ts sesame oil
• 1 tbs vegetable oil

In a big bowl, crack in one egg with the cut up fish fillet, cornstarch, salt, and sesame oil. Mix it evenly till the cornstarch becomes thick enough to give the fish a nice coating(if it's too thick, add little water if needed). Finally, add a tbs of oil and mix it up. Set this aside for now.

Add in all the ingredients and mix it up very thoroughly until it creates the batter. Once it looks like this, you are ready to go with the frying.

The Sauce/seasoning

• 1 tbs mushroom dark soy sauce
• 1 tbs oyster sauce
• 1/4 tbs chicken boulion
• 1/4 tbs sugar
• 1/2 tbs sesame oil
• 1 tbs cooking wine
• 1 cup water/chicken stock
• 1/2 tbs cornstarch( in a small bowl mix 2 tbs water for later use)

In a bowl mix up all the seasoning( except the cornstarch) and set it aside. The cornstarch mixture we will use at the end to thicken the sauce as we cook it.

Cornstarch at the end to thicken the sauce.

**This sauce is also good for Braised Ribs, Spicy Wings,Beef with Bitter Melon, Beef Chow Fun with Gravy, Shredded Pork with Green Bean or Spicy Beef Honeycomb etc...

Frying the Fish

Since we only fry a lb of fish fillet, so we don't need a big pan or pot. So a medium/small pan should be good! Heat it up in high heat with half oil. Wait till the oil is hot enough before frying.  To check if it's ready, just throw a small pc of your fish (or the batter itself) into the oil. If it floats up right away and it's golden brown, that means the oil is ready. After you fry the first few pcs fillet, just wait for the oil to heat up again before frying the next set because the temperature would have dropped significantly. Place all the cooked fillet on a plate with a pc paper towel.

You want it to be this 'busy' when it fries. If it is anything less, the fish will just soak up the oil and get greasy instead of crispy.

Fish doesn't take but a few minutes to cook because it's very thin. You also have to remember that we will be adding this back into the saute pan when we cook the dish all together.

Golden is the color you are looking for here. If all the pieces are cut to the same size, they should all be cooked enough.

If you like your fish extra crispy, REFRY the fish you just fried once more to get an extra crisp on the outside.  Set it aside.

Tossing the Fish Fillet..

Heat up a pan/wok in high heat with 2 tbs vegetable oil, threw in the black bean, garlic, ginger, green onion, yellow onion( optional) red and bell pepper. Stir it for few second, add the sauce. Let it cook for a minute then add in the cornstarch/water mixture a little at a time. Be cautious with it because you don't want the sauce to get too thick.  Sometimes the sauce thickens more from the batter on the fish.

Bring out the aromatics of the garlic, ginger, black beans, and scallions.

Stir fry the bell peppers until they develop a slight blister on the outside.

Add your sauce to the pan. Then stir in slowly the cornstarch. Once the sauce looks thick enough, add in your fried fish fillets.

 Now throw it the fish fillet, and toss it till the sauce cover all the fillets. Once it's fully incorporated, you're done! That's it, a classic fish fillet in black bean sauce 豉汁魚片! Enjoy it!!

This dish doesn't need a lot of sauce because of the saltiness from the black beans and the seasoning we created in the the batter mix for frying the fish. 

You will have this beautiful shiny coating of sauce that is just enough to glaze your mouth with every bite.

Coming up next!
Steamed Prawns with Butter-Garlic and Green Bean Noodle(Bean Vermicelli)
蒜茸牛油蒸粉絲大蝦

2 Corinthians 5:17
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

哥林多後書 5：17

"如果有人在基督裡，他就是新造的人，舊事已經過去，你看，都變成新的了！"