Crispy fish is loved by diners for its unique taste of crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. As a classic Chinese dish, there are some key cooking techniques and steps to master to make crispy fish. Here's how I, as a celebrity chef, make crispy and delicious crispy fish at home.
First and foremost, choosing the right fish species is crucial. In general, grass carp, carp or sea bass are ideal for making crispy fish. These fish are tender and have few spines and thick flesh, making them suitable for deep frying.
Next, let's take a look at the specific production steps:
Prepare the ingredients: Select a fresh fish, clean it, remove the scales, gills, and internal organs, and chop it into pieces of appropriate size. Prepare starch, flour, eggs, ginger, cooking wine, salt, and allspice.
Marinate the fish pieces: Put the fish pieces into a basin, add the sliced ginger, an appropriate amount of cooking wine and salt, stir well and marinate for 15-20 minutes to allow it to absorb the flavor.
To make the batter: Crack an egg in a separate bowl, add the appropriate amount of starch and flour and make a paste. The batter should be of a moderate consistency that evenly wraps the fish without being too heavy.
Deep-fried fish fillets: Coats the marinated fish pieces one by one in batter and deep-fry them in hot oil until golden brown. The oil temperature for fried fish should be moderate, too high will cause the skin to be charred and the inside is undercooked, and too low will cause the fish pieces to absorb too much oil and become greasy. Fry until golden brown on both sides, then remove and drain the oil.
Fry the second time: After the oil temperature rises again, put the fried fish pieces into the oil pan again to fry again, which can make the fish pieces more crispy.
Seasoning: Leave a little base oil in the pot, add an appropriate amount of five-spice powder and stir-fry until fragrant, then pour in the fried fish pieces, quickly stir-fry evenly, so that the fish pieces can fully absorb the fragrance of the five-spice powder.
Finally, a few tips to make your fish even more delicious:
When marinating the fish pieces, you can add some green onions and peppercorns to increase the aroma and taste of the fish.
Oil temperature control is very important for fried fish, you can use chopsticks to test the oil temperature, when small bubbles appear around the chopsticks, it means that the oil temperature is moderate.
Re-frying is a crucial step in making the fish pieces crispy and should not be omitted.
In general, making delicious crispy fish requires attention to the choice of ingredients, and mastering the steps and techniques of marinating, coating, frying and seasoning. I hope the above sharing can be helpful to you, so that you can enjoy star-level crispy fish at home.