Five-willow Fish

Name: Five-willow Fish
Yield: Serves 6–8 with 3–4 Other Dishes
Cuisine: China
Ingredients: 15 ml (1 tsp) tapioca or potato flour; 20 ml (4 tsp) tomato paste; 45 ml (3 tbsp) peanut or vegetable oil; 2 long red chillies, deseeded and cut lengthways into thin strips; 6 large pickled shallots or 3–4 large pickled onions, drained and cut into slivers; 6 spring onions, trimmed, cut into 5 cm (2 in) sections then shredded; 50–85 g (2–3 oz) preserved cucumber in syrup, drained and cut into slivers; 50 g (2 oz) pickled ginger slivers, drained and cut into strips; 300 ml (10 fl oz/1¼ cups) fish stock or water; 2.5–5 ml (½–1 tsp) salt; 1 fish with firm flesh such as red snapper, black bream, sea bass, 1–1.1 kilo (2¼–2½ lb) when cleaned; 10 ml (2 tsp) thin or light soy sauce; 60–75 ml (4–5 tbsp) peanut or vegetable oil for frying; about 30 ml (2 tbsp) plain flour; 2.5 ml (½ tsp) salt; 45–60 ml (3–4 tbsp) sugar; 10 ml (2 tsp) ginger juice; 60 ml (4 tbsp) Chinese rice vinegar

Preparation info

Serves
6–8
with 3–4 Other Dishes

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Classic Food of China

By Yan-Kit So

Published 1992

About

A Cantonese way of preparing fish with a sweet and sour sauce served both at home or in a restaurant. ‘Five-willow’ is the poetic name given to herbs and pickles of different hues and flavours used for the sauce. In south China, when you wish to make this dish, you go to a specialty store and ask for the five-willow sauce ingredients, and the store-keeper will make up the proportion for you. I have taken on the role of the store keeper and detailed below the different ingredients, all of wh

Ingredients

Asia
China
Fish course
Pescatarian

Ingredients

Method