Pan Fried Hapuka With Garlicky Soy Sauce 香煎鱈魚 － Reunion Dinner 2011 Part 1

Dishes with auspicious sounding names and those that symbolise wealth and good fortunes are served during the reunion dinner on the new year's eve. A fish dish is a must as the word fish 魚 (yu) resembles phonetically the word 餘 meaning superfluity or excess. So for our very simple reunion dinner I prepared this very simple but tasty dish and hopefully there will be abundance of wealth and good fortunes in the coming year for the both of us. I joined the hundreds of last minute shoppers on the bustling Victoria Street and was fortunate enough to pick up a beautiful piece of hapuka cutlet.

P.S The cutlet can also be steamed Cantonese style with great result!

serves 2 to 4 as part of a Chinese meal
you'll need;
1 large hapuka cutlet
5cm knob of ginger, finely shredded
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 spring onions, cut into 5cm sections and finely shredded lengthwise

for the sauce;
1/2 cup of stock
2 tbs of light soy
1/2 tbs of sugar
1 tbs of Chinese cooking wine
a dash of sesame oil

Prepare the aromatics and mix the sauce ingredients in a bowl.

Fry ginger with a little oil until golden, remove from pan and set aside.

Pan fry the fish in the ginger infused oil for roughly 2 to 3 minutes per side depending on the thickness of the cutlet. Remove from pan and place it in a shallow bowl.

Saute chopped garlic in the same pan for 30 seconds before pouring in the sauce mixture. Bring it to the boil and check for seasonings.

Pour the sauce over the fish and garnish with spring onion and fried ginger.