The Sinosphere · Volume 29, The Delta, the Salt Road and the Mountain Behind It
Xihu cuyu, West Lake vinegar fish
Hangzhou
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 30 minutes
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Hangzhou. A dish named for a woman who fled Kaifeng, refined by a Qing scholar, and only given its now-famous whole-fish form in the 1930s.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. 30 minutes, plus 2 to 3 days starving the fish if using a live one.
Ingredients
- 1 whole grass carp (or, in a UK kitchen, sea bass), gutted and butterflied
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Zhenjiang vinegar
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 0.5 tbsp potato starch
- 2 tbsp water
- 1.5 g, minced ginger, minced, to finish
Method
- If using a live grass carp, starve it in clean water for 2 to 3 days beforehand to purge muddy off-flavours; a UK sea bass needs no such step.
- Butterfly the fish, scoring lightly.
- Steam or gently poach at around 90°C until just cooked through, no more.
- Meanwhile, combine the soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, starch and water in a small pan and bring to a simmer, stirring until glossy and thickened.
- Pour the hot sauce over the pale, just-cooked fish at the table, finished with minced ginger, so the dark, glossy sauce and the pale flesh stay visually distinct.
What a modern chef changes
The poach-then-dress discipline, held to fine-dining precision.
Rung 4
Method
- Poach the fish sous vide at a precise low temperature, guaranteeing it stays genuinely pale and tender with no risk of overcooking, then blot dry before plating.
- Reduce the sauce in the chinois-strained style used elsewhere in this chapter, for a perfectly smooth, ungrainy gloss.
- Plate the fish whole at the table and pour the sauce over in front of the diner, exactly as the dish's own 1930s reform intended, rather than sauced in the kitchen.