How to cook Yangtze River knife fish

In life, many people like to eat Yangtze River fish. Yangtze River knife fish is an edible fish. This kind of fish has many gills, so it is more difficult to clean. However, this kind of fish tastes very delicious, especially for the Yangtze River knife fish that has just been caught. It is best to eat it when it is fresh. There are many ways to cook Yangtze River knife fish. The editor will introduce them to you below.

How to distinguish authentic wild Yangtze River knife fish

Jiang Dao: The fish has a solid body, with a sharp lower jaw that is much longer than the gills. There are fins on the sides of the body, and free filaments behind the fins that are more than half the length of the body. The gills of fresh knife fish that have been landed for one day are bright red, there is no leakage from the anus, and the scales are silvery and there is no large-scale shedding.

Lake knife fish: After the knife fish swims upstream from the mouth of the Yangtze River into tributaries and lakes to spawn, they settle down there and become "lake knife fish". Due to its "leisurely" life, the lower jaw of the "lake knife" is no longer sharp, the filaments behind the fins have become shorter, and the body of the fish is relatively "thin".

Sea knifefish: Generally, they are male knifefish, which are "big models" with thicker meat heads. The body of the "sea knife" is often not straight, and some even have a broken belly, because the "sea knife" is caught from the near sea and it takes about 10 days to be transported to the dock and enter the market.

Zhejiang Knife: The so-called "Zhejiang Knife" comes from Zhejiang. After growing up in the sea, it swam to the junction of the Yangtze River and lived in brackish and fresh water. Even experts sometimes find it difficult to distinguish it from its appearance.

"Mingqian Knife" and "Minghou Knife"

In addition to the differences between "River Knife", "Sea Knife" and "Lake Knife", there is also a timeline for the quality of Yangtze River Knife Fish: "Knife Fish before Qingming Festival" and "Knife Fish after Qingming Festival", which means Knife Fish before Qingming Festival and Knife Fish after Qingming Festival.

In the Jiangnan region, there is a saying that "knife fish is not good after Qingming Festival", which means that before Qingming Festival, the meat of knife fish is tender and the bones are crispy, melting in the mouth, but after Qingming Festival, the "bones are as hard as iron" and it is not worth eating.

Steamed Saury

1 Use chopsticks to insert into the fish belly from both sides of the fish gills.

2 Hold the chopsticks tightly with both hands, rotate them a few times, and pull them while rotating, so that all the gills and internal organs of the fish are pulled out.

3After removing the internal organs, use water to clean the blood in the fish belly from the fish mouth. The cleaned knife fish is intact as before.

4 Add scallion, ginger and lard into the steamer and steam for about 6 minutes

5 Pour the juice in the plate into the pot, thicken and season, and pour over the knife fish.