Adam Liaw’s red-braised fish
We’ll ring in the Year of the Dragon Saturday, February 10. My family has always celebrated Lunar New Year with the traditional family reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve, and these days I see it as a celebration that’s more important than ever.
It’s not because I’m superstitious or anything like that, even though every tradition surrounding the celebration is about luck: from sweeping the floors and cutting your hair before the new year to sweep or cut away bad luck, to the foods that are served because they rhyme with certain phrases. It’s not even about the money, though my kids love their red packets of cash just as much as I did when I was a little one.
I think Lunar New Year is important not just because it’s a time to be with the ones you love but also because it’s a time for reset and reflection. Christmas can be hectic as you wrap up the calendar year. Lunar New Year falls when the buzz of the old year has passed, at a time when your focus is not so much on escaping your everyday life, but on what kind of everyday you want your life to be in the Year of the Dragon.
Fish are an important part of any Chinese celebration. The phrase “you yu” in Mandarin means to “have fish” but it also rhymes with “having abundance”. Serving a whole fish also signifies completeness.
Ingredients
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 plate-sized whole snapper, Murray cod or other white fish (about 1.2kg), cleaned
2 tsp corn starch or potato starch
2cm ginger, peeled and julienned
2 garlic cloves, sliced
6 spring onions, cut into 5cm lengths
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp chilli oil, to serve (optional)
Method
Step 1
Heat your wok over medium heat until very hot. Dust the fish with the starch and shake off any excess. Add the oil and then the fish to the wok and sear on one side for about 3 minutes until the skin is crisp.
Step 2
Flip the fish in the pan and add the ginger, garlic and spring onions around the fish. Add the soy sauces, sugar and about ¾ cup of water to the wok and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover the wok and simmer for 12 minutes until the fish is cooked. Test the fish by inserting a knife or spoon into the flesh down to the bone. If the fish feels like it will pull away from the bone easily, it’s done.
Step 3
Slide the fish and the sauce from the pan out onto a plate, keeping the fish intact, then drizzle with chilli oil (if using) to serve.
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Adam Liaw is a cookbook author and food writer, co-host of Good Food Kitchen and former MasterChef winner.
