Szechuan style fish stew with pickled mustard greens. This is not a famous dish but I feel something like it is my responsibility to introduce this dish to Szechuan style food lovers.
This dish belongs to the classic Shui Zhu dishes. As a sister dish to Szechuan style water boiled spicy fish, it is available in almost every Sichuan style restaurant inside China. I searched a lot concerning about this dish for finding some basic options about this dish but ended my search with nothing. Then I guess one main problem might be the pickled mustard green, which is the most important ingredient in this fish stew.
Firstly in case you are new reader to this blog, I would introduce the background. There are many pickled vegetables in Sichuan cuisine. We have pickled chili peppers named as “ pao jiao” and other pickled vegetables like pickled cucumber, pickled cabbage and this pickled mustard green as “ suan cai”. In order to make this yummy suan cai yu at home, you need to go out searching for some packaged suan cai or find some fresh Chinese mustard green and pickle them at home according to this recipe: pickled mustard green. It is not so time consuming and healthier.
Another cooking tip for this fish stew is to make the fish slices. I have showed the process in the previous Szechuan water boiled fish video. We use grass carp usually. But this type is not available; you can replace it with other white meat fish.
Here we are! Enjoy!
- 1 fresh fish around 800g to 1000g
- 1 cup pickled mustard green
- 4 fresh shitake mushrooms
- 10 dried pepper flakes or more as needed
- 5 green onions or 1 scallion , separate the white part and green part 10 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
- 1 inch root ginger
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 10 whole Sichuan peppercorn seeds 3 tablespoons cooking oil
- 4 tablespoons starch
- 1 teaspoon white pepper powder
- 2 L water or as needed
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Wash the fish carefully and separate the bones and fish fillet. Then slice the fillet into really thin slices and cut the bones into large sections.
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In a large bowl with clean water, soak and wash the fish slices until they become almost transparent. Transfer out and drain.
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Marinade the fish bones and fish fillet slices with salt, cornstarch and white pepper powder. Set aside.
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Heat up around 1 tablespoon cooking oil in a large wok, fry garlic, ginger, green onions and whole Sichuan peppercorn for around 1 to 2 minutes or until aroma. Add pickled mustard green for another minute. Pour around 2L of fresh cold water and mushrooms, simmer the soup for around 20 minutes. Taste the soup and add salt accordingly.
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Pick the bones out and cook the in the soup prepared I previous step for around 5 minutes. Transfer all the content expects the soup to your serving bowl.
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Turn up the fire and add fish slices to cook for around 1 minute. Transfer all the content out to serving bowl too.
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Prepare another pan, heat up 2 tablespoons of oil with dried chili peppers until really hot. Pour the oil to the serving bowl evenly on the surface.
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Garnish some chopped green onion and serve hot!
For a better taste, you can add some pickled peppers.
I am glad you feel the responsibility to share lessor known dishes with us Elaine! This is why I love your blog. Some of my favourite Chinese dishes are lessor known ones. I recently discovered cold shredded potato and am now OBSESSED with it. As I also am with zucchini pancakes 🙂
Haha Nagi,
Yeah, there are many yummy Chinese dishes, not popular outside China but really worth high popularity. After almost one year of recipe sharing writing, I figured out the popular dishes outside China are so different from those inside China. So I will try to find a balance point and introduce more interesting Chinese dishes.
This looks very similar to a dish that I used to absolutely love at this Sichuan restaurant near home (in India). Apparently the cooks mother used to make this when he was a child and i was absolutely devastated one day when it closed down. I couldn’t imagine never eating that fish again! This looks very similar to it so I’m going to try to find the ingredients locally. Just a question.. What oil do you use with the chilies at the end?
Thank you so much for sharing this!
Hi Mandira,
Thanks, I hope you will love it. Sometimes I use peanut oil or colleseed oil. There is no direct limitation.
Never tried a Chinese soup like this one before. Think I definitely have to make the recipe, I am just loving all the delicious flavours and ingredients going on in i!
Thalia,
Fish with pickled vegetables really is so perfect!
I love Sichuan food, I can’t wait to try this.
Hi Andi,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving me a comment. This is a must dish for all Sichuan food lovers.
Hello! I was recently at a Sichuan restaurant with my Chinese friends and had a dish that sounds very similar, if not the same, to this. While eating the dish my mouth tingled–in a good way! It wasn’t spicy (though the dish did have a little kick!), but something similar to spraying muscle spray on your skin. Is it the Sichuan peppercorns that create this tingle?
Thanks!
Yes Caitlin,
That feeling comes from Sichuan peppercorn, a very unique spicy widely used in Sichuan cuisine. There are many similar Shui Zhu dishes from Sichuan cuisine. The cooking methods are similar but with different ingredients.
I’ve just made this soup and I have to say that it made my day. I’ve been trying many recipes from your web for a while and I love the way everything is explained in detail but in a simple manner. Now I can’t live without China Sichuan Food!
Greetings from a Spanish friend 😉
Hi Guillermo,
Thanks for leaving me such a lovely comment. Your words made my day too! I will bring up more excellent recipes. Happy cooking ahead.
Hey dude, Where did you find the mustard green vegetables, I am in Spain too, I lived in China for 3 years and Suan cai yu is one of my favourite dishes.
Thank you for sharing this recipe! I spent about two years in teaching English in China just after the Olympics, and Suan Cai Yu was one of my favorite fish recipes while I was there! It is the perfect blend of spicy and sour, and the fish tastes absolutely wonderful!
One thing I noticed that you did different from the Suan Cai Yu I am familiar with is cutting the fish into pieces. Typically when this dish was served to us in China the fish was whole and we had to be careful not to swallow bones! Did you alter this preparation method to be more like what people expect outside of China or is serving Suan Cai Yu with the whole fish not standard practice in China?
Again, thank you for sharing this. It is making me incredibly nostalgic for the beautiful country I called home for only a small portion of my life.
Hi Ali,
Glad to know that you love China. Yes, a more standard practice in Sichuan province, we slice the fish to shorten the cooking time and keep the fish as tender as possible. But there is another fish dish with Suan Cai from Northern Dongbei province may use whole fish.
Made this excellent dish last week. My wife and I enjoyed it for lunch five days running. Added a couple of teaspoons of chile paste, and served it with rice noodles to make it last longer. Nearly as good as in China, where I’ve taught eight semesters at Fudan Univ. in Shanghai and Sun Yat-sen Univ. in Guangzhou. Fell in love with the food. Really learning a lot from your blog. Love the photos. Tonight I’ll combine Sichuan beef stir-fry with beef chow mein.
Keep up the good work.
Hi Bill,
Thanks so much for trying the recipe and give me such a great feedback. Adding chile paste is a great way to enhance the flavor.
This is super comforting for me in winter. Happy cooking ahead.
I recently had this soup at a local Chinese restaurant, and it was the best soup I have ever eaten. Definitely want to try and make this on my own! Thanks for the recipe. 🙂
Good Luck Sarah. This seems quite unfamiliar to non-Chinese. Glad to know you find the yummy food.
There is a place in Atlanta, Georgia called Masterpiece it is small little place with only 8 tables and masters of Chinese food in the kitchen. I have tried many places but this place was the most authentical from them all.
If you are not too far go and have a treat! Bring your own bottle of beer or wine. They don’t serve alcohol.
When i was in china last year this was one of my favorite dishes! fantastic!
“4. Heat up around 1 tablespoon cooking oil in a large wok, fry garlic, ginger, green onions and whole Sichuan peppercorn for around 1 to 2 minutes or until aroma. Add pickled mustard green for another minute. Pour around 2L of fresh cold water and mushrooms, simmer the soup for around 20 minutes. Taste the soup and add salt accordingly.
5. Pick the bones out and cook the in the soup prepared I previous step for around 5 minutes. Transfer all the content expects the soup to your serving bowl.”
Sorry, I’m a bit confused – we’re supposed to pick the bones out in step 5, but form where? Were we supposed to put the fish bones in the wok in step 4?
Hello, I’m writing with a question. There is a very spicy condiment I buy from my favorite local Chinese restaurant. The woman who makes is is very sweet but speaks little English. She calls it spicy chili with green peppers. It had a few fermented black beans ( not black bean sauce) and pickles radish I believe. If you could tell me the name, or how it’s made I would be eternally grateful. I have been trying to find it on the web for years. I do have a photograph of it, if that might help you identify it? Thank you so much.
Sure, a picture will be extremely helpful. You can send it to me via facebook or instagram
Hello, I’m writing with a question. There is a very spicy condiment I buy from my favorite local Chinese restaurant. The woman who makes is is very sweet but speaks little English. She calls it spicy chili with green peppers. It’s dry and doesn’t contain oil at all. It had has a few fermented black beans ( not black bean sauce) and pickled radish I believe. If you could tell me the name, or how it’s made I would be eternally grateful. I have been trying to find it on the web for years. I do have a photograph of it, if that might help you identify it? Thank you so much.
I am so happy to find a recipe for this dish. I lived in China for almost two years and this was my FAVORITE food!! (di san xian was my other favorite — which is also hard to find a recipe for.) I’m going to try making this recipe this weekend. Thank you SO SO much for sharing so I can share with all the Americans who have been missing out on this amazing soup!!!.
Thanks Katy. I hope it works for you.
Hello from Europe! I just made this for dinner tonight and it was amazing! Incredibly subtle flavors and textures, definitely going to be making this more often now. Many thanks for introducing me to this lesser-known dish.
Thank you, Dorothy!