Jinsha Green Beans /341
You caught me out on this one. When I originally translated it, I assumed incorrectly that Jinsha referred to a place name. I've been to Jinsha County in Guizhou province and made the wrong connection. 'Jinsha' here actually means 'golden sand' (making it an odd name for a place in landlocked Guizhou).
I should have looked at the recipe then. The meaning in the context of the recipe becomes very clear.
Ingredients: 300g green beans, 1 salted duck egg yolk, salt, MSG, sesame oil.
The green beans are cut into uniform length pieces and put into boiling water until cooked. Drain, then stir in salt and MSG. Arrange neatly on a serving plate, dress with a little sesame oil then crumble the egg yolk (golden sand!) over the beans.
Serve.
Shaoxing Drunken Fish /379
Drunken XXXX in Chinese cuisine refers to the XXXX being cooked in wine (usually Chinese rice wine). Drunken chicken, drunken fish, drunken shrimp, drunken crab, drunken tofu etc are all common. Recipes vary widely. Although this one is basic and standard.
Shaoxing is a city in Zhejiang province, eastern China and produces what is regarded as the best cooking wine. It is the standard cooking wine for most Chinese cooks. (The higher grade wines are also drinkable.)
NOTE: In the USA, salt is added to Shaoxing wine to render it undrinkable and so enable it to be sold in stores without alcohol permits. Unsalted Shaoxing wine is available in Chinese and general Asian stores and is much preferred. .
Ingredients: 400g silver carp, 5g pickled salted plums, 5g salt, 50g Shaoxing rice wine, 2g sugar.
The fish is cut into pieces. The plums are boiled for two minutes, then the salt and sugar are added along with the Shaoxing wine .When the sugar has dissolved the mixture is removed from the heat and allowed to cool. The cool mixture is then used to marinate the fish, until it is ‘tasty’ (They don’t say how long.).
The fish is then steamed until cooked and served.
Grandmother’s Family Style Drunken Fish /393
This is a variation on the above.
Ingredients: 400g fish (no particular fish is specified, but again carp would be the most likely choice. Tilapia would also work well), salt, cooking wine , vinegar.
The fish is washed and cut into largish pieces, scalded briefly in boiling water, then drained and left to cool.
A marinade is made by mixing the rice wine and vinegar with the salt. The fish is marinated as above, then steamed for twenty minutes or until done. Serve.
Peacock Mandarin Fish
Again a relatively simple dish, but this time made complex by its presentation.
Ingredients: 1 Mandarin Fish, Salt, Cooking Wine, Soy Sauce*, Vegetable Oil
The fish is cleaned, then the head and tail are removed and reserved. The body of the fish is then sliced into pieces and rubbed with the salt and rice wine. It is left to ‘pickle’ for 10 minutes.
The head and tail are arranged to one side of a round serving plate with the head looking out and the tail behind. The body meat is then arranged around the head and tail in a fan shape (the peacock’s tail). (A similar dish is pictured here.)
The fish is then steamed for about 10 minutes. The soy sauce is poured over the fish, then a little vegetable oil is heated up and poured over the fish, too.
Serve.
The finished dish looks like this.
*The soy sauce called for in the recipe is a type of soy sauce with added flavourings designed for use with steamed fish. Regular light soy sauce will do just fine if the former is not available.
