Red Cooked Tilapia

The holidays are the best time where you can meet friends and family you haven't seen for months... One of my good friend Tony came to Montreal for the holidays and invited him to join one of the cooking sessions.

The first dish was cooked by my Taiwanese friend Chris known as Hong Shao Yu meaning Red Cooked Fish. This is one of the oldest and familiar method known in Chinese cuisine. This is done by slowly braising the meat in soy sauce. This is the first time that we use a whole fish for the cooking session.

Serves 2-4
Preparation Time : 5 mins
Cooking Time : 20 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 whole tilapia, scaled and cleaned
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sake
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vinegar
3 green onions, cut into thirds
3 large slices of ginger
2 tofu blocks, sliced
2 tbsp ketchup

Procedure

1. Pour enough oil to cover the bottom of the wok. Heat oil over medium-high heat. Fry fish on both sides, about 1-2 mins each until slightly brown. Remove fish and drain oil.

2. In the same wok, add soy sauce, sake, sugar, vinegar, green onions, ginger, tofu and ketchup. Stir and add 1 1/2 cup of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 mins. Bring back fish to wok, cover and simmer for 10 mins.

3. Serve the fish along with a bowl of rice.