Recipe Off the List: Sweet-and-Sour Fish "Tiles" (Tang Cu Wa Kuan Yu) from Every Grain of Rice
I don't fry things often, it's not a texture that's been high on my list of things I enjoy. I think that's because I mostly had mediocre to bad fried things growing up or am just not a heavy crust frying things kinda person. Once I encountered tempura, I became more open to eating fried food but doing the frying myself? Wee bit intimidating! There's hot oil I could splash on myself!
Slightly hilarious I decided to do two fried things in one week given that attitude, but it sure is doing good things for getting over that. Any rate, this was the first of the two.
I did my frying for this one in a wok. I like the sloped sides for the purpose and more relevantly, the recipe came out of a book focused on Chinese cuisine so I pulled out the wok. Just how my brain works. But this one will work just fine frying things in a Western-style pot. I would recommend a pot over a pan though, just to get a deeper layer of oil for the fry though. I would also say, if you keep the oil for another frying adventure, only use it for other fish. You're going to add a fishy taste otherwise.
Something I learned through experience this time: Keep the oil temperature up. I turned the stove down a bit too much and things got too cool to cook properly. That was an issue with my inexperience frying things and now I've learned more about how much heat my stove outputs. The first few batches ended up a bit paler than they should be, but the following batches came out better.
For the sauce, I thickened a bit more than Partner prefers but I liked it that thick. I saw his point though, so next time, I'll give it a minute or too less in the wok.
The kiddo ate this one, which has been a trial for a few weeks.
Recipe: Keeper
