I love black bean sauce. I love fish. The two together are tough to beat. This is some real Chinese food you can make at home. Any white fish will work. I like flounder, so it's what I used. You could fry it or steam it. I gave it a quick fry, then made the sauce in the same pan. The actual cooking will go by pretty quickly, so do all the prep work before you start. The fermented black beans and the rice wine should be easily found in an Asian market. They're inexpensive and keep well. This will feed two or three with rice as a main dish, or more as part of a more intricate meal.
1lb flounder fillets (or any white fish)
5-7 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 inch piece ginger, peeled, mashed and chopped
15-20 Chinese fermented black beans, soaked in 1/4 cup Chinese rice wine
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1 hot pepper, chopped (or more to taste)
pinch sugar
dash soy sauce
cornstarch dissolved in water (to thicken)
oil for frying
Fry flounder quickly in a little more oil than you need. The fillets tend to be thin, so they will cook in about two minutes. Get them onto a warm plate before they fall apart in the pan. Keep the heat on the pan. Add ginger, garlic, hot pepper and scallions and fry, adding more oil if needed to keep from burning. After another two minutes add black beans with rice wine, sugar and a small dash of soy sauce. When the liquid comes to a boil stir in the cornstarch and water slowly until sauce is as thick as gravy. Pour sauce over the flounder and serve immediately with white rice and a vegetable.
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5 comments:
JP - This sounds delish! Hey...want to guest post on my blog with something interesting? You can plug your blog and do whatever self promo you want.
Loved the posting on wines too! I'm such a wine freak (better sounding than wino...right?) and know absolutely nothing about it other than what I like and don't like. So, your posts on it are great lessons.
Thanks!
Rose
morselsandmore.blogspot.com
PS...congrats on getting on Leno!
It was Letterman, but thanks nonetheless!
It'd be my pleasure to guest post on your blog. You have my email.
JP
I made another trip to the Asian market for the fermented beans and the rice wine. Grabbed the rest of the ingredients from a couple of other supermarkets. And then got really busy at work, so I won't be able to cook it until the weekend.
I'll probably have to buy the fish all over again, but I'll ask first: If I've got fresh fish in the refrigerator, how many days should it keep?
I don't let fresh fish sit in the fridge for more than a few hours. In restaurants I'm sure they let it sit for a day or more in their low boy fridges. Fish goes "off" pretty quickly. When in doubt let your nose be your guide: if it smells "fishy" it's less than fresh (or worse). If it smells good and you're not going to use it within the next couple hours it should be frozen.
Okay, that helps. I'll get my arse back over the fishmonger and report back when I've completed the recipe.
Now I remember that I did fry up some of the fish by itself the day I bought it (although I didn't have a chance to cook the sauce.) And as you warned, it did fall apart on me in the pan. I'm not sure that I'd ever fried a fillet before. So I'll have a chance to do it again right this weekend.
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