Suddenly had this craving for sweet and sourish flavoured dish for dinner. I missed lemon fish, but find that the lemon fish from outside stores was tasted too sweet. So, I yearned to cook my own lemon fish! To curb my craving for it. A very satisfying one, I had it, for my family who loved this dish as well.
Lemon fish is an adaption of the popular Asian style lemon chicken. Cooking lemon fish dish is not a difficult chore. We can always get instant lemon sauce packets off the shelves, but it won’t really save your bucks by using these pre packs.
Make your own lemon sauce can be very easy, too. And I guaranteed you’ll be this very much! See my recipe:
Ingredients (A):
400 grams of Dory fish fillet, cut into chunks
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon of cooking oil
1 cup of cooking oil (for deep frying use)
Ingredients (B) for seasoning fish:
1/2 teaspoon of chicken granule
1/2 teaspoon of ground white pepper
1/4 of sesame oil
Pinch of plain flour
Ingredients (C):
1 egg
1 cup of cornstarch
Pinch of salt
Ingredients (D) for homemade lemon sauce:
Lemon juice extracted from 1 small fresh lemon (amount about 2 tablespoons)
1 salted plum (咸水梅), mashed with finger tips
2 tablespoons of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of orange or lemon emulco
1/4 teaspoon of vinegar
1/4 teaspoon of cornstarch
4 tablespoons of water
Method
1) Season fish fillet with the listed seasoning ingredients (B), for at least 20 minutes.
2) Mix ingredients (D) together in a small bowl. Stir well and set aside. (*Mash soft salted plum in the sauce mixture to extract its liquid. Remove the mashed bulb after that)
3) Break an egg and mix well with seasoned fish fillet. Set aside. Then, mix in salt with cornstarch in a large bowl. Coat fish fillet with cornstarch evenly.
4) Heat wok with oil over high heat. Reduce heat to slightly lower when heated. Fry coated fish fillets till golden browned. Remove from wok and drain on kitchen towel. Repeat process until all fillets are done.
5) In separate wok, heat with just 1 teaspoon of oil over medium heat. Add in garlic and sauté till fragrant. Add the lemon sauce mixture into wok, followed by crispy fried fish fillets. Quickly stir fry to combine well till fried fish fillets appear moist and glossy. Heat off and dish up. Decorate with lemon slices and serve.
A serving of my crisped lemon fish counts about 450kcal.
Tips: Add orange emulco to get better sweet tangy flavor in the lemon sauce as well as color presentation. If using lemon emulco, do a taste check after adding it, and before adding vinegar. If taste suits you, may omit addition of vinegar, or choose to add more sugar after that, if desired.
*Drizzle some water (about 1 tablespoon), if it’s too dry, after combining fillets and lemon sauce. However, bear in mind that it should not be have too wet or too much lemon gravy on the finished dish.
