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Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Nyonya Chien Chuan Hu [Fried Fish With Tau Cheong]

A very common fish dish in most Chinese families especially Peranakan homes. This fish dish is cooked with preserved soy bean paste [tau cheong] and ginger. Good to serve with porridge or rice.
At home, we called this dish Tau Cheong Hu or Chien Chuan Hu which is cooked according to our family way.  But this one  differs slightly from my family version but I find it good as the sauce tasted perfect.

I cooked this dish with one half of the Ikan Senangin from my hubby’s fishing trip. The other half was pan-fried and served with Lum Chut Sauce [see next post]. I had to cook the fish in 2 different ways/flavours because it was a big fish which I had to halve it for easier frying.
Since I love fried tofu with preserved soy bean paste, I added it to this dish.  You can omit the tofu.  For this dish, black promfret is a good choice.
Recipe Source – Nyonya Flavours [modified]
Ingredients
300 gm Kurau fish [I used half Ikan Senangin]
Enough oil for frying
Ingredients for Gravy
1 tbsp oil
20 gm ginger – cut thin shreds
2 cloves garlic – sliced
1 red chilli – seeded and cut strips
½ tbsp preserved soybean paste [tau cheong]
½ tsp sugar
1 tsp light soy sauce
125 ml water
½ tsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp water
Some spring onions – cut 1 inch lengths [optional]

  1. Pan fry fish with oil over medium heat until golden brown. Dish up on serving platter.
  2. Remove excess oil, leave 1 tbsp in wok to sauté ginger and garlic until golden.
  3. Add in soy bean paste and fry until fragrant.
  4. Add in light soy sauce, sugar and water. Bring to boil for several seconds.
  5. Thicken with cornflour mix. Add in chilli and spring onions.
  6. Pour sauce over fried fish. Serve with rice or porridge.
Cook-Your-Books

I'm sharing this post with Cook Your Books Event #21 [March 2015] hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours

8 comments:

Karen Luvswesavory said...

Hi Kimmy,
I occasionally cook something similar with fish filet, tau kwa, tau cheong and ginger too. Yes, yummy and great for porridge too.

Madeline said...

Hi Kimmy,
Your fish dishes look so delicious, making me drool :) Maybe because I like to eat fish LOL. Is the ikan Senangin same as ikan Kurau? they look alike. Thanks for sharing.

PH said...

Kimmy, I love this one even better! Given a choice, I prefer fried fish. And fried fish with taucheow lagi best! My mum also has her own version which she normally does with pomfret.

Kimmy said...

Hi Karen, yes there are numerous ways to cook fried fish with these ingredients. I like fillets too cos' they are boneless. Having this with porridge is much better than rice. My own version, I like to add lots of big onions and tomatoes.

Kimmy said...

Hi Madeline, yes ikan senangin is similar to ikan kurau and aka yau yee in Chinese. My hubby doesn't like to eat this fish if it is from the market cos' the flesh is soggy if it isn't fresh. But this is is sweet and the flesh is firm, the bones are whitish.

Kimmy said...

Hi Phong Hong, fried fish is fragrant and firm. My favourite too. It tastes good cooked with taucheong and ginger. Somehow, black pomfret is one of the best choice to cook in this style.

kitchen flavours said...

Hi Kimmy,
I always cook this at home. I've even prepared the drafted post but have not published it yet in my blog! Hehe! I have never tried making it with taufu before. And I love to leave the whole chilli padi in the sauce, very nice when mashed it on the plate, with rice and gravy! Thanks for linking with CYB!

Kimmy said...

Hi Joyce, there are many other ingredients that can be added like big onions, tomatoes, omelette and tofu puffs. I add these whenever I think there aren't enough dishes or food for the family meal.