sichuan water poached fish 四川麻辣水煮魚

At last I found a piece of excellent Alaska cod. What I have in mind is to make a proper bowl of Sichuan water poached fish 四川麻辣水煮魚 with the best fish that I can find here in the Pacific Northwest. Water poached fish 四川麻辣水煮魚 is one of the most famous dish of Sichuan cuisine.

As Sichuan is a landlocked province the fish use in this dish is fresh water fish. As I generally do not like farmed fish Alaska cod is not just a substitute, but a more desirable fish. I bought a piece weighs slightly over two pounds. It is freshly slaughtered so is as fresh as it gets. The recipe to preparing this dish is identical to that for Sichuan water poached beef 四川麻辣水煮牛肉. You just substitute the slices of beef with slices of fish.


For this dish I gathered all the right ingredients, down to the soy bean sprouts. I used close to one pound of cod which is plenty for this medium size clay pot. The first part of cooking was done in a small wok, and then transferred to the clay pot. The fish is lay over the top at last, and cook to perfection. One very important point of preparing this dish is liquid control. It starts with the selection of a proper size and shape clay pot to minimize the amount of liquid to ensure the broth would be concentrate and flavorful.


Ingredients:

• Alaska cod
• sliced ginger
• chopped garlic
• Chinese celery
• shallot onion
• dried hot chili peppers
• cooking oil
• Sichuan pepper corns
• hot fermented bean paste
• cilantro
• pickled Asian mustard green
• olive oil
• freshly ground white pepper
• salt
• soy sauce
• Chinese cooking wine
• sake
• water
• soy bean sprouts

One improved technique I used is extracting the essence of the Sichuan pepper corn into the cooking oil. I then discard the expended pepper corn so not to leave the gritty bits in the broth. This proves to be a great improvement. The process went exactly as planned. Cooking with clay pot you have to beware of the residual heat the clay retains so you don't over cook the ingredients especially the delicate cod.

I should note that because I use dried chili peppers as opposed to fresh ones the dish does not result with the bright red broth. It is a matter of connivence and cost effectiveness for me. I also do not want excessive amount of oil, and I drizzled in extra virgin olive oil towards the end of the cooking. I use modest amount of hot peppers and the dish is hot and stimulating, but not murder hot.

This dish that I made is as good as the one that I tried in Dalian, which was a high end restaurant our host treated us. Soy bean sprouts form the best underlayment in the bowl. They are nutritious and not over filling. They also do not get mashy unlike most green leaf vegetable. This is one delicious and yet wholesome dish. Guess what will be for dinner tomorrow?