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How to Make Braised Crucian Carp

Estimated Cooking Difficulty: ★★★★

Essential Ingredients and Tools

  • Green onions, ginger, garlic, dried chili peppers
  • Oil, salt, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, aged vinegar, oyster sauce, cooking wine, white sugar
  • Crucian carp, pork belly

Quantities

For 2 servings:

  • Crucian carp (approx. 1 kg / 2 jin)
  • Pork belly 100g
  • Green onions 200g
  • Ginger 80g
  • Garlic cloves 3-4
  • Dried chili peppers 2
  • White sugar 50g

Instructions

Note: The fish described below has been preliminarily cleaned by the seller, including scaling and gutting.

  • Wash the green onions, ginger, garlic, and dried chili peppers thoroughly.
  • Cut the white part of the green onions into segments approximately 4cm long, then split each segment into four quarters.
  • Slice the ginger into pieces approximately 3mm thick.
  • Smash one large garlic clove and mince it; cut the remaining garlic cloves in half.
  • Cut the dried chili peppers into four segments.
  • Slice the pork belly into pieces approximately 4cm x 4cm.
  • Clean the fish.
  • Make several diagonal cuts into the thick part of the fish's back to help it absorb flavors.
  • Add a generous amount of oil to the wok and heat it to 70% heat (just beginning to smoke). Fry the fish for 1 minute until the skin becomes slightly firm, then remove and set aside. (Note: Do not stir or move the fish immediately after placing it in the pan; let it fry for a while before flipping or moving it.) Pour out the frying oil, leaving a small amount of base oil in the wok.
  • Heat the base oil in the wok, then add the pork belly and stir-fry until fragrant.
  • Add the dried chili peppers, green onions, ginger, and garlic halves, and stir-fry for 1 minute.
  • Add the fried fish back into the wok.
  • Pour along the edge of the wok:
  • 50ml cooking wine
  • 50ml aged vinegar
  • 50ml Weijixian soy sauce (premium light soy sauce)
  • 20ml dark soy sauce for color
  • 5ml oyster sauce for umami
  • 5g salt
  • 50g white sugar
  • Enough water to cover the fish.
  • Turn the heat to medium and bring the liquid to a boil.
  • Reduce the heat to low and simmer slowly to allow the flavors to penetrate.
  • After 15 minutes, open the lid and remove the green onions, ginger, garlic, and dried chili peppers from the pot.
  • Increase the heat to high to reduce the sauce. When the sauce reduces to about 1/4 of its original volume, sprinkle with minced garlic, turn off the heat, and serve.
  • Braised Crucian Carp is ready!

Additional Notes

Pork belly is added to the Braised Crucian Carp for the following reasons:

  • Stir-frying the pork belly renders lard. Compared to vegetable oil, animal fat provides a richer aroma.
  • The pork belly, once fried until golden and then stewed, remains delicious and serves as a complementary side dish.
  • Fish naturally has low fat content and lacks aroma, focusing instead on the texture of the meat. Therefore, recipes for fish dishes often recommend using lard to achieve a milky white and rich fish soup. Lard is the best choice for this purpose.

If you follow this guide's process and encounter any issues or see opportunities for improvement, please submit an Issue or Pull Request.