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Chinese Name: 西湖醋鱼
English Name: West Lake Fish in Vinegar Gravy; Song Sao Fish; West Lake Vinegar Fish
Category: Zhejiang Cuisine浙菜
Main Ingredients: Grass carp
West Lake Fish in Vinegar Gravy西湖醋鱼, also known as Song Sao Fish宋嫂鱼, is a famous traditional dish in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.
West Lake Vinegar Fish is mainly cooked with grass carp and other ingredients. It has red and bright color, fresh and tender meat, sweet and sour fragrance, soft and tender taste and crab flavor. On September 10, 2018, West Lake Vinegar Fish was rated as one of The Top Ten Classic Dishes in Zhejiang Province浙江十大名菜.
The West Lake西湖 in Hangzhou is surrounded by mountains on three sides, only facing the city on the East, and the lake has formed a double overlapping landform. Coupled with the subtropical monsoon climate, with four distinct seasons and abundant rainfall, it is a typical water town in the south of the Yangtze River, which is very suitable for the growth of grass carp.
According to the notes in the Qing Dynasty清朝, the West Lake Vinegar fish was created by Song Wusao宋五嫂, a famous chef in the Song Dynasty宋朝. And It was called “Song Sao fish” at that time. Zhao Gou赵构, Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty宋高宗, tasted the fish and highly praised it. According to records, the name “West Lake Vinegar Fish” began in the Qing Dynasty.
The characteristic of this dish is that it doesn’t need oil. It only takes simple cooking to taste the fish itself and only needs boiled water and some spices. The cooking temperature is very strict. It takes only three or four minutes to cook properly.
West Lake Vinegar Fish is easy to cook but can produce unique delicacies. This is also a common feature of West Lake Vinegar Fish and even Hangzhou cuisine. This also means that although some things seem plain, they are wonderful behind the plain.
How to make West Lake Fish in Vinegar Gravy?
West Lake Vinegar Fish has rich nutritional value. Grass carp, the main food material, is rich in unsaturated fatty acids, which is beneficial to blood circulation. It is good food for cardiovascular patients. In addition, grass carp is rich in selenium. Regular consumption has the effects of anti-aging and also has a certain preventive and therapeutic effect on tumors.
Ingredients：
- A grass carp
- 25ml Shaoxing wine绍酒
- 75ml soy sauce
- 50ml rice vinegar
- 5g ginger
- 60g white sugar
- 50g starch water
- Proper amount of pepper
Instruction:
- Step 1, Starve the grass carp for one to two days, and urge it to drain the grass and soil to make the fish strong.
- Step 2, Kill and clean the fish.
- Step 3, Cut the fish from the tail, cut it into two pieces, and cut off the teeth.
- Step 4, Take a piece of fish and cut it obliquely every 4.5cm from the gill, with a total of five knives. When cutting the third knife, cut it at 0.5cm behind the fin to make the fish into two sections for cooking.
- Step 5, Cut a long knife obliquely to the abdomen at the thick part of the ridge of another fish. Be careful not to damage the skin.
- Step 6, Put 1000ml of clean water in the pot and boil it over high fire. And put the first half of a piece of fish, and then connect the tail section to it. Then place two pieces of fish side by side so that the fish head is skin-side up and cover the pan.
- Step 7, When the water boils again, open the lid, skim off the foam, turn the pot, continue to cook over high heat for about three minutes, and gently stab the lower jaw of the fish with chopsticks. If you can stab it in, it could be taken out.
- Step 8, Leave 250ml of soup in the pot, put soy sauce, Shaoxing wine and ginger powder, then put the fish into the plate. Put the fish skin upward when loading the plate.
- Step 9, Add white sugar, rice vinegar and starch water into the soup in the pot to make thicken juice. The concentration of soup is subject to the fact that the soup can flow down in a straight line by lifting the spoon.
- Step 10, Slowly pour the boiled soup on the fish, and then sprinkle a small amount of ginger.
