A Cantonese dish, this one involves seafood—in this case prawns and fish balls—cooked in a Hoisin sauce, a particular version of the popular Chinese sauce that's known around the world. Here it's served with stir-fried rice. A amazingly easy dish to cook.
Notes from a fragrant harbour...
I've been promising (threatening?) to publish more of the recipes my father learned on his youthful travels in Asia.
He learned this one in Hong Kong in the 1960s, quite literally from a family on a junk bobbing around in Kowloon Harbour. A cook from Hong Kong working on my dad's ship ship took a shine to him—probably because of his nosey fascination with Chinese cooking—and invited my dad to join his extended family when they docked in Hong Kong.
No, it's not a coincidence that I'm sharing it shortly before my birthday. It is a milestone memory. This is one of the dishes straight from the journals my dad madly scribbled as a young man literally eager to taste the world. There are beautiful little annotations in the margin such as his quoting the matriarch who taught him the recipe: "wash rice in seven waters".
For all those who have clichéd views of "Chinese food", this Cantonese seafood stir fry contains no cornflour, pork fat or any of those other things Westerners often gripe about. Its beauty is that even a child could cook it—and that probably explains why my dad first taught it to me when I was a kid and why it's been cooked for centuries. Food is an overlooked part of bigger histories.
Hoisin sauce is a bit of a catch-all—a bit like the notion of "tomato sauce". In other words, there is no such thing as a singular Hoisin sauce, rather it's more a style of sauce. I'm sharing the one my nutty dad jotted down in the 60s. Experiment and create your own. Or, if you're feeling really lazy, you can use a good readymade version such as this one from Lee Kum Kee. NB: almost all readymade versions will contain some form of cornflour or corn starch, but this one doesn't contain a lot of the other additives, colourings, etc.
Not too fishy
In my dad's journal, there's the whole recipe for how you make the fish balls the day before, when you cook the rice. I'm foregoing that knowing that these items are far more easily bought, readymade, in Asian supermarkets around the world.
I'm cooking it here with king prawns and fish balls. But you can use any combination of fish and/or seafood. Often my dad would cook it with crab and white fish, for example.
This dish feeds 2 to 3 diners. You do the maths to make it otherwise. NB: the images here are in smaller portions.
Shopping list
for the Cantonese seafood stir fry
Approx. 7 to 8 king prawns per diner; peeled
2 or 3 frozen fish balls per diner, defrosted and sliced
1 or 2 red bell peppers; sliced
2 small onions; quartered and separated into "layers"
A thumbs-length of root ginger, finely grated
Approx. 4 tbspns sunflower oil (or vegetable oil)
Approx. 2 tspns sesame oil
2 whole star anise
salt and pepper to taste
For the Hoisin sauce
¼ cup soy sauce
1tbspn dark brown sugar
½tspn Chinese five spice powder
½tspn ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 tspns sesame oil
2 tspns rice wine vinegar
2 tspns toasted sesame seeds
3 tbspns roasted cashews (or roasted peanuts)
½ tspn red chillies, finely minced (optional)
For the egg-fried rice
Approx. 1.5 cups jasmine rice; thoroughly washed, cooked and cooled
3 eggs
2 tspns garlic & ginger paste
½ cup frozen peas (or petit pois)
1 onion, finely chopped
A small clutch of spring onions; chopped
4 or 5 tbspns sunflower oil (or vegetable oil)
A dash of sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste
Cooking Method
the Hoisin sauce and rice
Make the Hoisin sauce up to a week before and store, sealed in the fridge. I've also found it stores very well frozen in an ice cube tray—simply remove and defrost as many cubes as you need...
Crush the toasted cashews (or peanuts) and sesame seeds using a pestle and mortar. Add together with the other ingredients to a blender—or using a handheld blender—mix all the ingredients and blend together. Alternatively, use the "old school" method and whisk all together by hand until a smooth sauce. Store until ready to cook
Similarly, boil the jasmine rice, cool and store, sealed in the fridge; ideally at least 24 hours before. Top tip: apparently this is a method that keeps Chinese vamps slim because the storage and re-cooking reduces the carbohydrates in the final dish
Next, prepare the eggs. Again, you can do this some time before. Heat a little of the oil while whisking the eggs, omelette-style in a beaker or jug. Add the eggs and half of your chopped spring onions and and cook, seasoning with balck pepper. Using a spatula, break up the egg in a grid-like pattern. Remove and place to one side
the Cantonese seafood stir fry
Heat the oil in the wok on a medium-to-high heat. Sizzle the ginger briefly before adding the onions and a little of the Hoisin sauce and the star anise
When the onions show signs of softening, add the sliced bell pepper and wok for a few minutes. When the peppers begin to soften, add half of the remaining Hoisin sauce and mix in, stirring almost constantly. When the ingredients are cooked, but still al dente, push the to the sides of the wok
Add the king prawns and sliced fish balls. Only when both are largely cooked, stir all the ingredients together, adding the remainder of the Hoisin sauce. Once the sauce has been assimilated and they're all suitably cooked, decant to a serving dish
Add a little hot water to the hot wok and swill around. Pour this "juice"—my dad's note quote the woman who taught the recipe to him calling it "sweet water"—over the top of the stir-fried seafood. Keep warm until serving
the egg fried rice
Add a little more oil to the unwashed wok and heat on a high heat. Add the garlic & ginger paste and sizzle for a minute or so. Add the chopped onion and fry, stirring all the time. When the onions begin to soften, add the cooked rice and stir almost continuously, adding a little more oil if needed
Season with a about 2 tbpsns of soy sauce and add the frozen peas (or petit pois) and continue to stir. The rice will remain dark for a fair while, but will lighten later—how you know it's ready. Add the frozen peas
When the peas are still slightly undercooked, stir in the "omelette" pieces. When all the ingredients are cooked and the colour lightens and turns golden, remove from the heat. Garnish with the raw chopped spring onions and take to table
Alternatives
Vegans and vegetarians
This is fundamentally a pescatarian dish. But, I find it works really well with tofu, even better if you use a mix of tofu and smoked tofu. Mix it up even more by mixing tofu and oyster mushrooms...
Carnivores
Yeah, you'll need to come back for that separate episode. Though, that said, it does work well with bite-sized pieces of chicken instead of the seafood. And, I do remember my dad making it with pork cubes, but I'd have to look that up because I rarely cook with pork.
Pairings
Bizarrely, I don't ever remember having this dish with wine. More times than not, I have it with jasmine tea, Coca cola with lime or an Asian beer such as Tsingtao.
However, I have no doubt that Karel could come up with amazing wine pairings. That pleasure still awaits.
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