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Crispy Fried Elephant Fish with Ginger Fish Sauce: CA Tai Tuong Chien Xu
Recipe courtesy Luke Nguyen
- Total Time:
- 38 min
- Prep:
- 10 min |
- Inactive Prep:
- 20 min |
- Cook:
- 8 min
- Level:
- Intermediate
- Yield:
- 4 servings
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 3 tablespoons white vinegar
- 4 ounces water
- 4 tablespoons fresh ginger, julienned
- 1 tablespoon chopped chile
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh garlic (about 3 cloves)
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 1 (1 1/2 pounds) whole elephant fish, unscaled (or snapper, scaled)*
- Vegetable oil, for frying (about 4 cups)
- 3 sprigs fresh coriander (cilantro), for garnish
- Steamed jasmine rice, for serving
- *Cook's Note: You can use whole snapper as a substitute for the elephant fish; however the snapper will have to be scaled.
Directions
In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, fish sauce, vinegar, and water and bring to the boil. Take off the heat, and transfer to a bowl and allow to cool. In a mortar and pestle, pound together the ginger, chile, and garlic. Once the fish sauce mixture is cooled, add the ginger mixture and lime juice. Set aside.
In a large wok (large enough to hold the entire fish), heat the oil to 350 degrees F. Carefully, slide the whole fish into the oil and cook on high heat for 5 minutes. The scales of the elephant fish will puff up as it cooks. Remove the fish to a platter, and dress with 4 tablespoons of ginger fish sauce and garnish with fresh cilantro.
Serve the fish with steamed jasmine rice and remaining ginger sauce.