Poached Fish in Red Broth - Shui Zhu Yu

by Adam
  • Yield:1 meal
  • Time:
    54 mins show details

This is a famous dish from Sichuan, a Chinese province known for its fiery cooking. It consists of meltingly tender fish poached in a spicy, flavorful broth, with napa cabbage to round out the meal and a slick of red chili oil on top that coats every piece of food you pull out.

The tofu, cayenne pepper, and chili powder are personal additions - not traditional, but very tasty. The tofu helps to bulk out the meal, the cayenne just makes things spicier, and the chili powder provides a nice, deep, kind of bass note against all the other bright and punchy flavors in this dish.

Tags: Chinese, spicy, salty, dinner, main dish

Ingredients

  • 3
    blocks of tofu, firm or silken
  • 3
    filets of white fish, get the mildest-flavored fish you can (my store has basa; swai or cod are good too)
  • ½
    head of napa cabbage
  • 1 inch
    ginger, minced
  • 5
    garlic cloves, minced
  • 3
    scallions, roughly chopped
  • 3 tablespoons
    douban jiang
  • 2 tablespoons
    Sichuan peppercorns, ground
  • 2 tablespoons
    red chili flakes
  • 1 dash
    cayenne pepper
  • 1 dash
    chili powder
  • ½ cup
    vegetable oil
  • ½
    can of cream of chicken soup, (or use water or broth of your choice)
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Preparation

  1. 10 mins

    Cube the tofu. Slice the fish into large, thin slices. Cut the napa cabbage into large pieces. Mince the garlic and ginger and roughly chop the scallions.

  2. 5 mins

    Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large pan. Briefly stir-fry the cabbage with a little salt until cooked but still crunchy. Place in the bottom of a large serving bowl.

  3. 3 mins

    Add a few more tablespoons of oil into the same pan. Add the scallions and cook until they are wilted and charred. Add the garlic and ginger and fry until fragrant.

  4. 5 mins

    Add half of the ground Sichuan peppercorns, half of the chili flakes, the cayenne, and the chili powder to the pan. Bloom the spices in the oil until fragrant. Then, add the douban jiang to the pan. Stir fry until fragrant and reduced, then add the condensed cream of chicken soup into the pan and stir fry some more until fragrant.

  5. 20 mins

    Add the tofu to the pan and add enough water or broth to cover. Boil until the tofu has cooked through and absorbed the flavor of the broth.

  6. 5 mins

    While the tofu cooks, make a chili oil topping. In a separate small pot, heat the half cup of vegetable oil on medium, then add the rest of the ground Sichuan peppercorns and the red chili flakes. Cook on medium until the oil is stained red and has picked up the flavor of the spices. Keep the oil heated on medium.

  7. 5 mins

    Bring the broth with the tofu up to a rolling boil. Add the fish, stir, and poach until just barely cooked through. (The fish will continue to cook after the heat is off.)

  8. 1 min

    Pour everything into the serving bowl on top of the cabbage. Immediately pour the hot chili oil, along with the spices in it, on top, letting it sizzle. Serve with rice.

Notes

I kid you not, canned cream of chicken soup is the secret. I've used beautiful homemade broth like you're supposed to but the cream of chicken blows everything else out of the water.

The best way to eat this is not to spoon the broth over your rice, but to pick pieces of food out of the broth, letting the oil coat them.

The broth can be reused once or twice to make more fish. Supplement with more douban jiang or aromatics as needed.

This dish can also be made with thin slices of tender beef (if you go beef, using some meat tenderizer is actually traditional and makes the texture way more melt-in-your-mouth). You can also add other vegetables, like bean sprouts or celery, or even rice noodles.

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