Szechuan Fish – Suan Cai Yu

Szechuan style fish stew with pickled mustard greens. This is not a famous dish but I feel something like it is my responsibility to introduce this dish to Szechuan style food lovers.

This dish belongs to the classic Shui Zhu dishes. As a sister dish to Szechuan style water boiled spicy fish, it is available in almost every Sichuan style restaurant inside China. I searched a lot concerning about this dish for finding some basic options about this dish but ended my search with nothing. Then I guess one main problem might be the pickled mustard green, which is the most important ingredient in this fish stew.

Firstly in case you are new reader to this blog, I would introduce the background. There are many pickled vegetables in Sichuan cuisine. We have pickled chili peppers named as “ pao jiao” and other pickled vegetables like pickled cucumber, pickled cabbage and   this pickled mustard green as “ suan cai”. In order to make this yummy suan cai yu at home, you need to go out searching for some packaged suan cai or find some fresh Chinese mustard green and pickle them at home according to this recipe: pickled mustard green. It is not so time consuming and healthier.

Instructions

How to prepare the fish|Wash the fish carefully and separate the bones and fish fillet. Then slice the fillet into really thin slices and cut the bones into large sections. Separate the fish pieces and the bones. 

Add salt in fish meat and bones. Mix for a while until the meat becomes sticky.  Then wash the fish slices until they become almost transparent. Transfer out and drain. This step helps to remove any odd taste and give the meat a lovely texture. Repeat the process and clean the fish bones too.

Marinade the fish bones and fish fillet slices with salt, cornstarch and white pepper powder. Set aside.

Fry mustard green and aromatics | Add a small amount of oil in wok and fry mustard green until dried and place dried chili pepper and Sichuan peppercorn. Continue heating until aromatic. Pour extra oil and fry garlic, ginger and green onion white section until aromatic too. Transfer out.

Make the broth| Clean the wok and re-heat some oil, add the fish head and bones and fry until slightly browned. Place the fried mustard green in. Pour in 800ml hot water. Let the broth simmer for 15 minutes.  Transfer the solid content to serving plate. 

Cook the fish| add fish slices in and cook for 30 seconds until they turn white. Transfer out immediately. 

The highlights| add chopped garlic, Sichuan peppercorn and chopped green onions. Pour around 2 tablespoons of hot oil.  Serve hot!