Fish Fillet with Broccoli Stir Fry 西蘭炒魚片

Every time I visit home, I love cooking for my family and it’s even better when we all cook together.  My dad cooks amazing Chinese food and I love learning new recipes from him.  I started browsing through all the Chinese cookbooks we owned and found some simple classic recipes from the Chinese Cuisine cookbook by Huang Su-Huei.  For dinner, my dad and I decided to cook a simple Fish Fillet with Broccoli Stir Fry, as well as a slightly fancier Scrambled Egg Whites with Crab Meat.  The reason why we choose these recipes was because both called for egg whites and I had a bunch after making my Hollandaise sauce!

The fancy name of this dish is 翡翠龍利球 (Fei Cui Long Li Qiu) which translates to “Jade Flounder Fish Ball” with the “jade” referring to broccoli.  The everyday name is 西蘭炒魚片 (Xi Lan Chao Yu Pian) which literally translates to “Broccoli Stiry-Fry Fish Fillet.”  I love this fish dish as it is very simple to prepare and what I would consider “light” relative to most greasy stir fry Chinese dishes.  The fish we bought from our local Chinese grocer was Swai, or iridescent shark also known as shark catfish that is native to Southeast Asia.  “Swai” is a corruption of its Thai name sawai.  This is a white fish with a sweet, mild taste and a delicate, flaky texture that is perfect for stir frying, grilling, or broiling.

Fish Fillet with Broccoli Stir Fry 西蘭炒魚片 (recipe by Huang Su-Huei, Chinese Cuisine)

Yields: 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 2/3 lb fish fillets
• 1/2 T cooking wine
• 1/3 tsp salt
• 1/2 egg white
• vegetable oil for frying
• 1 stalk green onion, cut into 6 pieces
• 6 slices ginger root
• 1/2 lb broccoli

Sauce:

• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp sugar
• dash of black pepper
• dash of sesame oil
• 3 T water
• 1 tsp cornstarch

Directions:

Lightly score the fish fillet in a criss-cross pattern.  Cut the fillet into bite-sized pieces.

One ingredient at a time, add the cooking wine, salt, and egg white to the fish pieces, mixing after each addition. Add 2 T oil and mix so that the pieces of fish will separate easily during frying.  Set aside as you cook your broccoli.

Blanch the broccoli in boiling water; remove; drain and rinse in cold water to cool.  Remove and drain.

In a small bowl, combine all the sauce ingredients together: salt, sugar, black pepper, sesame oil, water, and cornstarch.  Mix well and set aside.

Heat a wok and add a little bit of oil.  Stir-fry the fish until it is cooked (this is precooking).  Remove the fish and then remove the oil from the wok.

Reheat the wok and add 2T oil.  Stiry fry the green onion, ginger root, and cooked broccoli together. Add the fish and and the sauce.  Turn the heat up to high and stir quickly to mix.  Transfer to a serving plate and serve with rice.