Squirrel-Shaped Mandarin Fish | 王雅婷

    Squirrel-shaped Mandarin fish is myfavorite food in my childhood. The dish is shaped as a squirrel, tasted crispand soft, sour and sweet. It is a well-known traditional dish in Suzhou, whichused to satisfy the Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty in the ancient time. Andit was widely spread and named as the Squirrel-shaped Mandarin Fish.

There are eight steps to cook it.

1. Fresh and alive mandarin fishshould be chose so that the meat can well retain fresh and tender.

2. Clean and scale the fish, andcut out gills and guts. Cut off the fish head and halve it. Cut open the fishalong the length of its backbone, leaving the tail on.

3. Make diagonal cuts on thesurface of the fish.

4. Marinate the fish flesh andhead in cooking wine and salt. Dice onions, mushrooms, bamboo shoots andcarrots and scald them.

5. Heat oil in wok. Coat the fishhead and meat in flour and egg folk. Deep fry until golden.

6.  Leave a little oil in the wok,and add tomato sauce. Add diced onions, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, carrots andgreen peas and stir-fry. Add cooking wine, water, salt and sugar.

7.  When the sauce boils, add thecornstarch and water mixture to thicken.

8.  Sprinkle some sesame oil andpour the sauce over fish and serve.

Hope you all like it :)