Kinki Channel Rockfish, A Red Beauty

The first request Maggie made for food when I returned from my little getaway was Pork Buns.  Who can blame her?  So, yes, we did have more pork buns today, but when I went to buy the pork belly, I couldn't help but also pick up these little beauties.  They were fresh, bright red and funny looking; a variation of rockfish called the Kinki Channel Rockfish.  Based on the information I got that this had the firmest flesh of the rockfish family, I decided to fry it and top it with a garlic chili sauce.
The fish were a combined 2 1/4 lbs.  Had I been serving the fish to guests, I would have left the heads on for presentation.  But for practicality and ease of cooking, I decided to remove the large heads for our family meal.  The fish had been cleaned when I bought it, so all that was left to do was cut a few slits on each side of the fish.
Salt each side of the fish before frying.  To fry, I used a deep nonstick wok to avoid the possibility of the skin sticking to the pan.  Fill the wok with 2 cups of oil, fry the fish until browned.  Remove and drain the oil and set aside while you make the sauce.


For the sauce, I prepared the following:
2 Scallions, sliced
1" Piece of ginger, minced
2 Serrano Chiles, minced (Red Thai Chilies would be preferred, but all I had on hand was the Serrano)
6 Large Garlic Cloves, smashed, then roughly chopped
1/4 Cup Palm Sugar
1/2 Cup Tamarind Juice
2 Tbsp Fish Sauce
2 tsp Sweet Soy Sauce


Use about 3 Tbsp of the frying oil from the fish and heat in a wok over medium high.  
Toss in scallions, ginger, chiles and garlic and fry until fragrant and garlic is soft.  Make sure your heat is not too high as you don't want to burn the garlic.  Then add in the palm sugar, tamarind, fish sauce and sweet soy.  Bring to a boil and let simmer for a couple of minutes.  Pour the sauce over the top of the fish to serve.
Oh, and when I went back to look for the pork buns from an earlier blog, I realized I did not write about the Momofuku Pork Buns earlier.  Maybe it was because I was feeling a little piggy at the time having written about so much pork.  But shortly after returning from New York, the girls requested pork buns.  The recipe is in this link.  So simple, once again, so delicious.  Steam the buns, add a little hoisin sauce, a few pieces of sliced scallions and cucumber, prepare to be amazed.


The fish was very fresh, garlicky, sweet, and tangy.  Paired with a bowl of white rice, there's no need to look for more.  But alas, the pork buns.  As we got fuller, we found ourselves devouring the pork belly with the hoisin, cucumber and scallion sans bun.  The bun is the perfect vehicle, but sometimes there's nothing wrong with leaving your vehicle behind and taking your main love out for a spin on its own.

Comments

  1. I am always looking for a new fish and a new sauce. Love it. I've never had those buns with anything but duck, so that sounds great too.

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