Szechuan Whole Fish With Spicy Bean Paste |豆瓣鱼

Hi everyone, Chinese New Year is only a few days away. Today I'm going to make a very traditional Sichuan dish, whole fish in bean paste. This is a must-have dish at my family's Chinese New Year dinner. Fish in Chinese, yu, has the same pronunciation as abundance. Whole fish symbolizes a year of abundance and good luck. Here are the ingredients. I have one whole fish, tilapia, and about 2 pounds. We need scallion, ginger, garlic, spicy bean paste, I chopped it finely, sugar, salt, soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, vinegar, canola oil, and also white starch. Before cooking, we chop up scallions, ginger, and garlic. For the fish, dry the fish with paper towel. Make three cuts on both sides. Put salt on and also inside the fish. We are ready to cook. First, let's pan-fry the fish. Put a little bit of oil. Let's put the fish in. Pan-fry about 2 minutes each side. Okay, let's flip the fish. Cook the other side for another 2 minutes. After about 2 minutes, let's take out the fish. Add some oil to the pan. Add ginger, garlic, bean paste, sugar. We also add a little bit of vinegar, soy sauce, cooking wine. Mix it up. Now let's add water. Enough to cover the fish. Let it boil. Now the water is boiling. Let's put the fish back. Scoop some of the sauce. Cover it. Cook about 8 to 10 minutes. Occasionally scoop the sauce on top of fish. Let it cook. After about 8 minutes, fish is done. Put some sauce on. Let's take out the fish. Okay, now let's add scallions. Last, let's add white starch. Mix it up. And we are going to pour the sauce on the fish. We are ready to serve. Then we garnish with scallions. Whole fish in bean paste. Wish everybody a very happy Chinese New Year, the Year of the Dragon. Wish you a lot of luck, happiness and health. Thank you for watching.