Monday, February 06, 2006
Sweet & Sour Fish
...or what if you've got too much Fish & Chips? This should really be the subtitle of this post because this is exactly what happened to me. Last Friday, I was just too worn out (or would lazy be the better word?) to cook, so I decided to get some fish & chips. I always go to Leo Burdock's on Werburgh Street. They're close to my place, so the food doesn't arrive cold and soggy, and, besides being a Dublin institution (it has been in the same spot since 1913), they have the best fish & chips that I have come across in Dublin so far. For just over €5 you get a huge chunk of cod and another €2.50 buys you a portion of chips large enough to feed two (and I don't mean two pubescent girls on a diet, I mean two people). In any case, that evening, it proved too much for me and that says something about the size of the portion. Theoretically speaking, leftover battered fish might as well go straight in the bin; it is soggy, greasy, goes stale in no time. In short, it is plain nasty. But I left so much that I was too cheap and too concerned about not wasting any food to just throw it away. So I wrapped it, stuck it in the fridge, and forgot about it.Until yesterday. It was another one of these days with seemingly no decent food left and the two of us staring at each other wondering what to eat. And this is where the fish came into the picture. We had loads of vegetables left from my big shopping trip the day before and I always have all the basics I need for fried rice because, as I have already mentioned, Chinese food is often my way out of such food binds. This proved to be the case again yesterday, when I decided that this jumble looked decidedly like the basis for sweet and sour fish on a bed of stir fried vegetables with fried rice. The end result looked like this:
And this is how you get there (or at least how I did):enough left over battered fish for 2 people (or, of course, fish for two, freshly battered and fried or steamed if you prefer a lighter option)If you have particularly hungry diners, you might want to consider serving a starter before dinner. And when it comes to these, I have very little pride, meaning I don't generally make my own. Chinese starters are normally hard work to make from scratch and the fried stuff makes your kitchen smell unless you have a deep fat fryer. So, unless I have all day, feel really inspired or have guests, I buy ready made. But you do have to be picky here. Cheap oven bake spring rolls are nasty and a total waste of what little money they cost. If you can, go for the nice Dim Sums (I know, I know, these are not meant to be starters. In fact, the Chinese don't even have starters, but that's for another day to discuss. I do have a bit of a post about Dim Sum in London at the back of my head...) that you can buy in well stocked Asian markets. In Dublin, I recommend the Chinese market on Georges Street (between the Market Arcade and Laser Video) and the one on Abbey Street behind the Jervis Centre. Some of the shops around Moore and Parnell Streets are pretty good too, but can get confusing to the non-Chinese-speaker. But whatever you do, go for nice things. Life is just too short for bad food.
For the sauce:
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 spring onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 ½ tbsp light brown or Demerera sugar (ordinary caster sugar will do too, it's just not quite as nice)
1 tbsp light soy sauce (the Chinese kind, cheap and cheerful, although the Japanese version is fine too)
1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
3 tbsp water (more if the sauce seems dry)
For the vegetables:
a small knob of ginger, ground
2 tbsp dry sherry (medium also works, just stay away from the sweet stuff)
a selection of vegetables (I used a sliced carrot, 4 shiitake mushrooms, a handful of baby spinach leaves, some sugar snaps and 2 handfuls of bean sprouts)
2 tbsp oil
For the rice:
enough cooked rice for 2 people (Make sure to use sticky, fragrant rice. Ordinary long grain rice cannot be eaten with chopsticks and tastes naff. This is a great way of using up the rice you get with your Chinese delivery. I generally order a full portion of fried rice with my meal and freeze the steamed rice I get free.)
½ onion, chopped
2 to 3 eggs, depending on how eggy you like it
2 handfuls of peas (fresh or frozen, definitely not tinned; alternatively, you could use finely chopped carrot, which needs to be cooked before starting this recipe, or tinned sweetcorn)
4 tbsp oil
1 vegetable oxo cube (or enough stock granules for about 200 ml of liquid; do not use one of these sticky, greasy stock cubes. The recipe does not call for liquid and these will not dissolve properly.)
soy sauce to taste (generally about 1 or 2 tbsp
If you are using leftover fish, preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius. Put the fish, as it is, in a large ovenproof dish. (Size is important here. If the dish is too small, the fish will sit in its own steam and will not go crispy again.) If you are making your own fish, get it all ready for cooking.
Combine all the ingredients for the sauce in a small saucepan, bring to the boil and allow to thicken. Adjust the seasoning to suit your taste using the same ingredients.
For the rice, heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok or large frying pan. Add the onions and cook until translucent. Add the eggs, scramble and cook until completely dry. They should look almost overcooked otherwise your rice will be soggy. Remove from the pan and set aside. Heat the remaining oil in the same pan.
In a second wok or pan, heat the 2 spoonfuls of oil for the vegetables. Add the ginger and fry for 1 minute. Then add the hardest of the vegetables, in my case the carrots and sugar peas. In the meantime, the oil in the rice pan should be hot. Add the rice and fry, stirring occasionally. When the vegetables are starting to brighten, add the next lot, in my case the mushrooms. Continue this until all vegetables are in the pan and have just long enough to cook through, but remain crunchy. At some point during this time, the fish should be cooked. If you are making your own, fry or steam as intended. If you are using leftovers, they will take 6 to 7 minutes (do not overcook!) in the hot oven to go crunchy again. The results are best if it is turned once, but otherwise left undisturbed. Time it so the fish is done just after the vegetables.
While all this is going on, it is time to finish off the rice. Add the peas (or carrots or corn) and heat through. Then add the egg and onion mixture, followed by the crumbled stock cube. Season to taste with soy sauce and remove from the heat. If the sauce has gone cold, you can use this empty hob to reheat it.
To serve, simply put a portion of rice in the centre of a dinner plate, top with the stir fried vegetables, add the fish and drizzle with the sauce. Serve immediately unless you want the fish to go soggy again.
Christine at 6:22 pm
