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Braised Fish Head Recipe

  • WARNING If you have never used a cleaver to chop meat, this recipe is not recommended!!!
  • During preparation, the sharp cleaver may cut your fingers, so please be very careful.

Estimated Cooking Difficulty: ★★★★

Essential Ingredients and Tools

  • Note: If possible, prepare a separate cleaver. Cheap cleavers with thicker blades (5-7mm thick) are widely available in supermarkets or markets and are ideal for this task.
  • Green onions, ginger, garlic, cilantro, bird's eye chilies
  • Cooking oil, salt, chicken bouillon powder, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, aged vinegar, black pepper, cooking wine
  • Star anise, dried chilies
  • One fish head
  • Note: Fish heads sold in markets are generally of two types: bighead carp (Bai Lian) and silver carp (Hua Lian). The former is cheaper, while the latter is slightly more expensive but offers a better texture!

Quantities

Note: This recipe yields enough for 2 people.

  • 1 fish head
  • 200g green onions
  • 80g ginger
  • 3-4 cloves of garlic
  • 1/4 bird's eye chili
  • 4 sprigs of cilantro
  • 2 star anise pods, 5 dried chilies

Instructions

Preparing the Ingredients

  • Wash the green onions, ginger, garlic, cilantro, and bird's eye chili thoroughly.
  • Rinse the dried chilies and star anise lightly.
  • Cut the green onions in half. Cut the lower white part (scallion white) into 4cm segments. Cut the upper green part (scallion greens) into segments, then split each segment into four quarters.
  • Slice the ginger into 3mm thick slices.
  • Smash the garlic cloves.
  • Take two sprigs of cilantro, remove the roots, and chop them into 1.5cm pieces.
  • Slice the bird's eye chili into 3mm thick rings.
  • Cut the dried chilies into four pieces.

Marinating the Fish Head

  • Note: The "fish body" mentioned below refers to the meat attached to the fish head when purchased.
  • Remove the scales from the fish head and clean out any remaining internal organs.
  • Chop off the fins and clean the gills.
  • Separate the fish head from the fish body at the jaw connection. Cut the fish body into chunks and divide the fish head into four or six pieces.
  • Note: Describing fish preparation in text is difficult; it is recommended to search for videos on how to prepare fish heads.
  • Rinse the chopped fish head thoroughly, preferably washing away any residual blood from the pieces.
  • Place the cleaned fish pieces in a bowl. Add 5g salt, 10g light soy sauce, and 10g cooking wine. Add the green onions (the chopped upper part) and 1/3 of the sliced ginger. Mix well and let it marinate for 1-2 hours.

Final Steps

  • Add 30ml of oil and wait for the pan to heat up...
  • Once the oil is hot, reduce the heat to low.
  • If you are unsure why this step is necessary, please refer to the "Stir-frying Techniques" section in Learn Stir-frying and Pan-frying.
  • Add ginger slices and stir-fry slowly until most of the juice from the ginger is released and the slices turn golden yellow.
  • Add scallion segments and stir-fry until they begin to turn slightly white.
  • Add minced garlic, star anise, and dried chili peppers; stir-fry for 5 seconds.
  • Pour the marinated fish head into the pan and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes.
  • Add 500ml of water, along with 2g of salt, 3g of chicken essence, 5g of light soy sauce, 3g of dark soy sauce, 5g of cooking wine, 2g of black pepper powder, and 3g of aged vinegar.
  • Place two stalks of cilantro into the pot and cover with a lid.
  • Increase the heat to high and bring the water to a boil.
  • Reduce the heat to medium and simmer slowly to allow the flavors to absorb.
  • When the broth has reduced by half, remove the lid.
  • Increase the heat to high to reduce the sauce. When the sauce is reduced to 1/3 of its original volume, turn off the heat and transfer to a small bowl.
  • Note: Pour the broth evenly over the fish head. When serving, you can place the cooked cilantro from the pot at the bottom of the serving dish to make the dish look more appealing and delicious.
  • Place the cilantro on top of the served fish head, and arrange the sliced bird's eye chili rings on top of the cilantro.
  • The braised fish head, complete in color, aroma, and taste, is ready to serve!

Additional Content

If you encounter any issues or have suggestions for improvement while following this guide, please submit an Issue or Pull request.