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.
“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!
Tai hao chi le!!
I was in a market nd saw the pickled greens so i decided it was time to make the soup. This was like comfort food living in Chengdu.
I stuck to the bassic recipe but I added Thai Chilies with the aromatics. In addition the oil pour was done with a lot more pepper flakes and more peppercorns, as the soup in China had significant heat.
A definite winner and so quick and easy to make.
Xie xie Ni
Thanks Richard! Happy cooking.
I discovered this dish at a local Szechuan restaurant and loved it. Thus recipe is spot on – delicious, flavorful, quick and healthy. I usually defrost some frozen swai fish filets.
Thanks Cabrielle for trying!
I am confused about Step 5 too…but I guess I would put the bones in at the same time as the pickled mustard and simmer for 20-25 min rather than just 5 minutes