How to pickle stinky mandarin fish

As an Anhui dish, stinky mandarin fish must be marinated before making it. The quality of the marinating directly determines whether the dish is of high quality and whether it tastes fresh and fragrant. During the marinating process, you must first clean it and remove the internal organs and scales. After cleaning, drain the water from the fish before you can start marinating. During the pickling process, the pickling temperature and amount of salt require skills and also determine the pickling effect.

The key to pickling "stinky" mandarin fish:

(1) In the process of pickling "stinky" mandarin fish, changes in temperature and salt content play a decisive role. Generally speaking, the temperature should be between 10-30℃. The higher the temperature within this range, the faster the pickling speed. The amount of salt should be 400-500 grams per 25kg of mandarin fish. The less salt within this range, the faster the pickling speed. Taking 25kg mandarin fish and 500g salt as an example, when the temperature is 10-20℃, the pickling time is about 7 days, when the temperature is 20-25℃, the pickling time is about 4 days, when the temperature is 25-30℃, it takes 2 days to pickle and achieve the "stinky" effect.

(2) It is best to use a wooden barrel to pickle the "stinky" mandarin fish, so that the "stinky" flavor of the "stinky" mandarin fish can be preserved. Adding heavy objects to press down during the pickling process can make the "stinky" mandarin fish have a firm texture after cooking. Turning the fish upside down once a day can allow the salt to evenly penetrate each mandarin fish, making the product uniform.

(3) Pickled "stinky" mandarin fish can be divided into whole pickled (suitable for mandarin fish weighing 250g-500g per piece) and chunk pickled (suitable for larger mandarin fish, which can be cut into small chunks before pickling). The flavors are the same after cooking, but chunks are more popular with diners because they are easy to taste and share.

Ingredients: 400 grams of stinky mandarin fish, 50 grams of minced meat.

Seasoning: a little minced ginger and garlic, 50 grams of shredded onion, and appropriate amounts of cooking wine, sugar, MSG, and chili sauce.

Preparation method:

(1) Chop the stinky mandarin fish into pieces, wash and blanch them for later use.

(2) First, fry the minced ginger and garlic until fragrant, add the stinky mandarin fish, add a splash of cooking wine, add some dark soy sauce, then add appropriate amount of water, a little sugar and appropriate amount of chili sauce. After cooking for 8 minutes, remove the fish from the pot and add appropriate amount of starch. When the soup is slightly thick, put it into another container and serve it together with the fried onion shreds, stinky mandarin fish and iron plate.