Dried fish

[eatingwitheddie]

One of my favorite shops is a hole-in-the-wall on the west side of Mott St (NYC) just south of Grand. It sells only dried fish. Must be more than 100 different types.

Everytime I walk by I marvel at the variety and wonder what they're all used for.

I know I'm supposed to be the expert here, but hell my Jewish grandmother never taught me about this stuff. Neither did my professional chef mentors.

Any toughts/experiences/recipes?

[Jinmyo]

I've always wondered about making a kind of Asian baccala with dried fish and congee.

[tissue]

The small (one inch long) anchovie like fishes are stir fried with peanuts and chilies as an appetizer dish; this is to be washed down with alcohol.

The even smaller white baby fish is sometimes pan fried with egg, like an omelette.

The dried squid is sliced into slivers and broiled, dipped into some type of soy mixture.

[trillium]

The smallest guys also get deep fried and mixed into sambals or chilli sauces. Here's what I know: if the dried fish is still somewhat moist it gets used as a flavoring agent much like dried shrimps or scallops, like in fried rice, sa po dishes, steamed meat cakes, etc. (think Hakka food) and if it's bone dry it gets used to make stock. If it's dried and put up in oil it gets eaten warmed up with rice...some versions can include some pickled onions or shallots and chopped chillies added on top. I am so jealous you can go some where to pick and choose what sort of fish you want, usually we just settle for the highest quality snapper fillet from Malaysia.

regards,

trillium

[bigbear]

I am particularly fond of an Ecuadorian soup called Fanesca. It's a heavy "meal of itself" kind of dish that includes dried salt-cod. Traditionally, it's served around Easter.

[torakris]

In Japan dried fish have hundreds of uses.

They are eaten whole as a snack

they are stirfried into appetizers or furikake for topping rice

they are put into soups (though removed before eating)

these soft ones from the soup as well as certain hard ones are grilled and then eaten

Little ones are deep fried and then used as toppings for tofu or salads

[DylanK]

Beautiful, right? I think it's some kind of perch. It was a gift from a friend that caught and salted it himself. I like tiny dried fish fried with dried tofu, with lots of chili. But this thing is big! Give me some ideas.

What do you like to do with dried fish?

Edited April 22, 2008 by DylanK (log)

[annachan]

Cut it up into fillet pieces, put on top of seasoned ground pork and steam.

Dice it and you can make chicken and salted fish fried rice or claypot chicken with salted fish and tofu.

Or just simply steam the fillet with some ginger and a little oil.

[SheenaGreena]

great for adding to soup. nice of your friend to give it to you as a gift cause dried whole fish is expensive. My mom makes a nice korean soup with dried fish pieces and lots of daikon. delish

[Domestic Goddess]

Beautiful Dylan!

I would suggest to cut it up into 3 pieces to make several dishes. Cut the head off with about an ich of meat along with it. Take the middle portion of the body and fillet it. Take a tail portion and leave as is.

Head - great for fish soup and broth

Body - you can fillet the meat and fry it like how you do with the small dried fish. Dont forget to throw the skeleton into the soup as mentioned above.

Tail - great steamed or braised with little soy sauce, a lot of chicken broth and leeks. Or as a topping for fried rice.

[sanrensho]

I bet it would also be nice if you steamed it with rice.