How to Make Chinese Sweet and Sour Squirrel Fish

All right we're here today we're gonna make this iconic squirrel fish and it's essentially using a whole fish that we're essentially gonna fillet and lay out on the plate like it looks like an entire whole fish but without the bone you're gonna be able to eat fish fillets but it's gonna look like an entire fish and usually this fish is done with freshwater mandarin fish found in China very common in China and that's what all the most most restaurants serve some restaurants do serve carp freshwater carp but today we're gonna use a sea bass fresh sea bass so essentially what we're gonna do first to fillet it and for those of you who have filleted a whole fish it should be fairly easy but you look here where it ends the cavity ends over here and where the thick meat starts over here and you make one cut down to the bone like so and then you're gonna follow the bone here right from the tip you see this fin that we've cut off but you're gonna follow the tip make sure you got a nice sharp knife you can now lift the meat give it a little tension as you're coming down all the way down to the tail you can hear the knife against the bone you want to hug the bone get as much meat as you can over here this is where it starts now you can also slide your knife underneath actually this way underneath and come out the other side on the other side again hug the bone lift and these are the belly bones that's why you want to get a nice size fish because you want to get a decent size fillet now I'm gonna do is you're gonna cut all the way down to the bottom just about to the change this position so you can see just all the way down to the bottom so you get right to the tail but not quite don't cut it flip this over then you're done with this side could have done a better job here but more practice the better so I'm gonna put this meat back and do the other side you want to keep everything intact and do the same thing on this side I'm gonna start from the tail the top that is lift the meat as you go along and hit the side here I cut I'm just using a chef's knife here a little pointy so it's easier I think again poke this off the out the other side hug the bone to the end and detach this side make sure you don't you just did not get in the bone and you want fillet okay so now you've got your two fillets here and what you want to do at this point is peel this back with a sturdy chef knife you should be able to cut right over here that have your tail intact with your two fillets just like that all right so now that we've got the fillet over here we're gonna process this head cut off this body over here you can save this for fish stock again firm chef knife give it a little knock cut this off use for stock and basically what you've got here is the presentation of the the head here and you want this this is how you're gonna present it on the plate just like that okay next now we're gonna we're gonna slice up these fillets put a cross hatch and I'm gonna get a little bit more surface area and you know get that nice iconic pattern of the squirrel fish and make sure they're nice and crispy so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna first put a cross hatch on I'm gonna put vertical slices and then we're gonna do a horizontal slice a little bit at an angle so we get nice long pieces so what you want to do is slowly very carefully you cut to the skin down to the skin but you want to be careful not to cut the skin itself you want to have the skin intact it's the skin sometimes you just press it and another one the skin you can see we get the skin okay after that same thing horizontal again be careful very important so take your time on this one skin skin is actually pretty tough but it's not the end of the world if you cut through the skin but you really don't want to do it because the skin is what holds all that your whole fish together actually you can kind of see what you're ending up with here a cross hatch pattern here and that gives you a lot of surface area and I got now you're gonna do the same thing on the other side here you go you got both sides you got this kind of a pattern all right so I've got here an egg yolk and some spices and some wine and mix those up and this is pretty dry right now but after you cut it we washed it pretty good but after you cut it you can wash it in ice water and make sure everything's a little bit tightened up and then pat it dry but this looks pretty good to me right now so I'm gonna start dredging this a little bit you're gonna get your hands messed up a little bit because this is you want to get it between all of these little nubs that you've made here in between all the mixing crannies because that's where the cornstarch has to stick stick to it this make sure you get to the back sides in between this aside here and do the same thing head not a lot there's not a lot here so you definitely want to get your hands in there use every bit of this now what we usually do is keep this keep this you want to keep this fish with his mouth open so what I'll do is take a take a toothpick here and just kind of like stick it in here hold this while it's frying move this aside and better to get like a half sheet pan something big and get the cornstarch there carefully with this fillet down sides what you're gonna want to do is make sure again get the cornstarch in here really good all the nooks and crannies and if you don't get this in there it's gonna stick and you're not gonna get this nice crosshatch pattern so again spend all this time doing this just take all right so once we get everything coated shake this off a little the excess pieces dredged both sides dredged and you're ready for the fryer so let's set this aside here now the same treatment to this the headpiece now for Chinese this head actually is gonna be pretty pretty edible there's actually a lot of meat here poke at it with your chopsticks and get get get the meat on here okay so you've got this fillet that you've that you've dredged here and this is actually the orientation of the fish this is the belly side and this is the back side so what you're gonna do is you're gonna put the fish on its back and the two bellies are like this and then you're gonna take each piece and just splay it like this might sound crazy but this is this is the way you're gonna fry it and then when you've got two pieces like this you're gonna hold it hold the tail when you're frying it you're gonna hold the tail like this and then you're gonna fold this up so that the two sides of the fish fillet are out and you're gonna give it a little shake and then when you put it in the oil you're gonna put it in the oil just like this and you're gonna lower it until it starts to fry you can actually hold it closer over here until it starts to fry and then once you're gonna swim it in the oil we're gonna show you you know this is just a dry run and then it's gonna stay together and then once when it stays together then you can let it go and make sure that this tail is is high up like this because this is the presentation that you want you want it fried like this and the head like this and that's how it's gonna look on the plate. So let's go to the fryer grab both ends and I'm gonna lower it slowly and if you use a pair of tongs if you like it's a little safer right now just lower it right in there and it's holding its shape. I'm gonna hold this tail up here while I ladle some of this oil over shape there just leave it fry. Get this tail cooked here. No one can eat it but it's got to look, it's got to be cooked. It's important on this top part that you keep ladling the oil because that's, you're ladling the oil, it's frying, it's gonna sit on top. I'm frying it evenly. And use this spider. If you got something smoother it's better but this works fine too. Let it drain. Look at that. That's your tail of your fish. That's the way it's gonna look. We'll arrange that on the plate a little bit better. Now we're gonna fry the head. Remember, we want this head to lay open like this so we're gonna lay it open just like this. Lower it slowly down and guide it in. Just let it lie down right in there. This ladling trick is, I mean we're using a lot of oil here already. Six, seven cups. Just an extra large fish. If you use a smaller fish you need less. But ladling is a really safe oil because you need a lot more oil to completely submerge this fish. One thing I want to mention is that everybody, our readers ask about it. You know, how big is this wok? Well this is a pretty big wok. An 18 inch wok. Might even be a 20 inch wok. I'm not sure. Somewhere in between there. 18 and 20 inch. And you know it's good that you're kind of using it and the oil is low. But also you need a lot more oil to fill this wok too. So if you've got a smaller wok the oil is gonna be a little bit higher. You never want to fill it too high. But you're gonna probably use less oil as well. What I'm gonna do after this, after the oil is cooled, is I'm gonna run this through a fine mesh strainer. And set it aside in a pot. And if I'm deep frying anything else, I can use it. Or if I'm making stir fries, I use this oil as well. A lot of people say, I never can get it to taste like a restaurant. Well, restaurants are doing this constantly. They're frying whether it's a fish, whether it's shrimp, sweet and sour pork. They're frying in the oil and then they're using that oil to cook it. And maybe that is the secret to the restaurant taste. At least one of them. I'm gonna carefully lift this up again with a spatula. And it's pretty much stayed there by itself. Alright, I'm heating the wok. I'm just gonna fry these pine nuts. Actually, I took the oil out. I actually forgot. But the best thing to do is actually take one of these fine mesh strainers and put it in the oil for 30 seconds. But since I forgot to do that, I'm just gonna toast these pine nuts. Because these pine nuts, when they're toasted, taste incredible. I'm gonna toast them in the wok here in a little bit of oil. About 2 1⁄2 to 3 tablespoons of oil that I have here because that's what I'm gonna use for the oil. Okay, starting to brown. And that's it. Up they come. Don't wanna burn. Beautiful. I'm gonna saute the onions. Get them a little bit nice, caramelized, and a little bit crispy. These onions add a beautiful flavor to the sauce. On low heat now. I'm gonna put this mixture that we put together, tomato paste, et al. All this stuff. I use a little spatula to get every bit I can. And we're gonna fry this until it's nice and fragrant. Alright, until it's fragrant. Stir up this mixture. Juice. Has some cornstarch in it also. So I gotta stir this up. Make sure I get all the cornstarch on the bottom. Alright. Give this a little mix. Bring this up to a simmer. And the cornstarch will thicken it. And this sauce, you don't want it to be too thin because that fish is gonna soak up. That fried fish is gonna soak up all this sauce. Alright. We got everything. There we go. Now we're gonna put some of these pine nuts on. Gonna put these peas on for a garnish. And there it is. Your squirrel fish recipe right here. Fit for a banquet.