Glazed 'Smoked' white fish fillets

This is an interesting recipe I found in an old Chinese cookbook. One of those much loved and often used books, where the pages stick together with oil splatters and tear on the most important ingredients, you know the cliches. The book informs that:

"The smoked fish slices (fresh fish marinated and spiced to taste like smoked fish) make a delicious, unusual hors d'oeuvre".

Basically for me, it's a different approach to cooking some plain white fish fillets, in this case Basa, taking them in a different direction to the usual butter, lemon and herb road. The fish gets a sweet, smoky flavour from the soy and wine and takes on a smoky-like beige colour.

Some stir fry greens grown from seed by yours truly and very useful for quick 'greenery' necessary to help us feel rosy and glowy and a little smug that we had our veg today. They also taste good, a little spiciness kicking the mouth into attention.

Rather than deep frying the fish as stated in the recipe, I decided to shallow fry and make a quick glaze with the left over marinade to brush onto the fish as it fried, layering the flavours and getting a crispy, glossy finish. The secret to shallow frying is to ensure you have a good pan, if not non-stick then at least fairly reliable. Mine is not and so the glaze glued itself to the bottom, taking little crispy bits with it. To try and resolve this I poured some water into the pan to loosen the crusted bottom and so goodbye crispy, glossy fish, still perfectly edible and pretty tasty, however.

Recipe: 'Smoked' fish slices   

(Adapted from The Encyclopedia of Regional Chinese Cooking by Kenneth Lo)

1 lb white fish, cut into small rectangles

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp Chinese wine or dry sherry

Pinch of salt

4 tbsp peanut oil

2 tbsp Oyster sauce

1/2 - 1 tsp sugar

A few drops of hot Sriracha sauce

Vegetables

1 red, yellow or orange bell pepper, or a combination, cut into thin shreds

2 tsp peanut oil

1/2 cup green beans, sliced in half length ways and boiled briefly in boiling, salted water

1 large handful mixed greens

1 large handful beansprouts, rinsed and boiled briefly in boiling, salted water (you can boil the beans and beansprouts together).

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp soy sauce

A pinch or two of sugar

Mix the soy sauce, Chinese wine and salt in a large bowl and add the fish slices. Mix well and cover. Let marinade for at least one hour. Remove from the marinade, (reserve for the glaze) and blot dry on kitchen towels.

Heat the oil in a frying pan or wok over high heat and add the fish in one layer, (you may need to do this in several batches), fry, turning once or twice until opaque. Turn the heat down to very low while you make the glaze.

To prepare the glaze, pour the reserved marinade into a saucepan and add the Oyster sauce, sugar and hot sauce. Simmer over medium heat until thick and glossy. Brush this over the fish in the pan, let cook for a few more minutes, increasing the heat a little and  turn over and brush again, repeat until the fish is crispy and well coated with the glaze.

To cook the veg, heat the peanut oil in another pan or wok until hot and add the peppers. Fry until softened slightly and add the beans, greens and beansprouts. Fry quickly to retain some crispness and add the salt, soy sauce and sugar, adjusting the sweetness to your liking. Stir everything over a high heat briefly until the sauce is thick and serve with the fish and some white rice. 

I added a tsp each of bamboo shoots in chili oil and kimchee to the top of mine, interesting is perhaps the best word to describe the taste. I suggest you simply sprinkle over some sesame oil or a few seeds.