- [Narrator] This episode
is sponsored by Squarespace. I used Squarespace to build
both Basics with Babish and bingingwithbabish.com. On the sites, you'll find recipes, equipment lists, other news, and updates, all beautifully designed,
if I do say so myself. Get 10% off your first Squarespace order by visiting squarespace.com/babish. (gentle upbeat music) (woman speaking Chinese) - Hello there, welcome
back to another episode of Anime with Alvin where
today I'll be taking on the challenge of making the blooming fish from a Chinese animation,
"Cinderella Chef". Now, in the show, she
calls it a squirrel fish which is actually a real
dish in Chinese cooking. But based on her preparation, this could either be Squirrel Fish,
or (speaking Chinese), also known as Coral Fish, a slightly more difficult variation. And because I enjoy challenge I will be doing the latter. Either way, the end results
should be a beautifully fried and sauced fish that
looks like it is blooming. This is an extremely difficult
dish to prepare correctly, as it requires an extremely high level of (speaking Chinese) or knife skills from the chef. I have here a whole black sea bass which I'm going to start by
attempting to filet this. This is my first time ever trying to filet or butcher a fish. So a lot of mistakes will be made. Ow. After watching a few YouTube videos, I've gathered that fileting
a fish usually begins by making incisions on the tail, sliding a thin knife, or
a cleaver in this case, across the spine and towards the head. And I gotta say, people really make it look easy in the videos. Like Gordon Ramsey fileting that huge salmon filet, but this is hard. And usually at this point I'd be feeling pretty
nervous about this dish. But thankfully Kendall
managed to pick up some already fileted sea bass from
the fishmongers themselves. You can clearly see that
there's a huge gap between my knife skills and an expert
fishmonger's knife skills. So if you can, I suggest
you ask your fishmonger to filet your fish and de-bone it for you. And make sure to leave them a big tip. Now onto the step that turns
this into a blooming fish, the crosshatch pattern. This begins with the
nearly impossible task of making an incision at
around a 20 degree angle, less than a quarter inch thick from the flesh all the
way down to the skin, but not slicing through. This step now must be repeated
across the entire filet with no flesh breaking and
the knife staying steady the whole time you're cutting. And if any flesh rips,
or if the skin tears, that's an ugly mistake you can't fix. This dish is about literally exposing your (speaking Chinese) for the world to see. I've watched a couple of videos about how to make the Coral Fish and apparently it gets
even harder from here. One of those videos that I referenced is from a Chinese cooking
channel called Wang Gang. He's actually made a really popular video about this exact same dish. And not surprisingly
his (speaking Chinese) is magnificent. So I'm taking huge inspiration and instruction from
his video for our dish. After I've done my best to
cut the flaps across the fish. The next step is to cut thin
strips out of each flap, starting from the base where
the flesh attaches to the skin. This is actually more
difficult than it seemed because at least the fish
I'm using does not have very firm flesh, making it
very easy to drag and tear. The thinner the strips, the
more beautiful the end product but also the more dangerous
the risk of tearing becomes. Which definitely happened a couple times. After I finished crosshatching
to the best of my ability, which took about like 30 minutes, I'm gonna give it a quick
rinse in a water bath and press it dry with a towel. This helps clean the fish and also turn it into somewhat of a sponge
for flavor and seasoning. Meanwhile, I'm heating up a
wok full of oil to 350 degrees. Hello! Now that our fish has dried, I'm laying our filets in a tray filled with a couple tablespoons of (speaking Chinese) or cooking wine and a tablespoon of salt. Marinating in cooking wine and salt is a common technique
used in Chinese cooking to simultaneously season
and counteract the pungency or fishiness from meat or fish. The important part here is to make sure that the marinade coats and touches every single strip in the fish filets. The patted dry fish will
take about five minutes to soak up that marinade. So I'll prepare the
breading in the meantime, a one to two ratio of corn
starch and potato starch. Might have gone a little overboard here but hey, you know what they say, "You can never have too
much sand at the beach." And just like at the beach,
it is important to get sand in every single crack and crevice, whether you like it or not. I'm gonna delicately
try and push the starch into each strip of fish,
attempting not to break it. I broke, I broke the fish. I hate the beach. After a stressful five minutes, our oil is up to temperature and our fish is ready to fry. This kind of looks like an accordion. This next step is very dangerous. The recipe calls for the
fish to be held at both ends and slowly dipped into the hot oil, but held right above
the oil so that the fish does not touch the bottom
before it gets a chance to crisp up and solidify. If the fish is not held,
and dropped into the pan, the strips will hit the bottom and curl up turning this into a curling
fish, not a blooming fish. This means that your hands
are in a lot of danger. So I have to legally tell you
that you should not do this. But when your sixth sense tells you that the fish is ready to be dropped, you drop it. And watch before your very eyes as the strips start to bloom. Once the entire fish
reaches a light golden brown I'm taking it out, resting it on a rack, and repeating the same
process with the other filet, slowly submerging it into the hot oil, and just when I can't hold it anymore- oh, it broke. That's okay. I'll find a way to fix that. I always do. Once the fried fish filets are taken out I'm also frying the tail and the head. This is important to the final dish because not only does it
serve as a presentation factor but it also serves as a test to who at the table is
badass enough to go for 'em. Once all the fish has been fried it's important to work
quickly on the sauce so that the fish does not get soggy. In a medium sauce pan, I'm
combining 300 grams of ketchup, 40 grams of white vinegar,
120 grams of sugar, and two teaspoons of kosher salt. Stirring until it starts to reduce. Hey why are you jumping at me? Once it's been bubbling for a while, I'm adding in half a
cup of water to dilute. And once the sauce has come
back up to temperature, I'm adding in around two tablespoons of a corn starch slurry, which is made by a one to one ratio of
corn starch and water used to thicken sauces in Chinese cooking. And to finish, two
tablespoons of a neutral oil to add a beautiful glossy
sheen to the sauce. Now we gotta plate fast or
the fish will not be crispy. Arranging the filets side by side so that the blooming coral
pattern faces upward. We're gonna also arrange
the tail on one end and the head on the other so
that any prospective diners know immediately that this is a fish dish. Not skipping a beat, we're
pouring the sauce directly on top trying to cover each crack and crevice with that beautiful red glaze. I actually didn't thin
out my sauce enough. It should be a very thin
sauce that barely clings to the fish, but hey, what can you do? I think the weight of
my thicker sauce caused some of those fish strips to sort of fall. So we're gonna wrap
this up pretty quickly. A few leaves of parsley,
and I present to you my first attempt at the (speaking Chinese) or Coral Fish from Cinderella Chef. A whole fish that has been
crosshatched, breaded, fried, and coated in a
sweet and sour sauce. Clearly my knife skills
leave a lot to be desired. But I gotta say, this
is pretty fun to eat. You pull off a little french fry of fish that already has sauce on it. And you just put it in your mouth. And it tastes solid, like fried fish in a sweet and sour sauce. But if you wanna watch
an expert make this dish, I highly suggest you check
out Chef Wang Gang's video. I mean, the way he does it, beautiful. His channel is filled
with amazing and authentic Chinese cooking that I grew up with. So watching his videos is both inspiring and nostalgic at the same time. Peace. - [Narrator] Thanks again to Squarespace for sponsoring today's episode. They've been a great partner in supporting the Babish culinary universe and bringing my websites to life. From websites to online stores,
to domains and analytics. Squarespace is the all-in-one platform for you to build your online presence. They also have SEO tools so
that your site is getting found in search by more people more often. If you wanna try it for yourself, you can start your free trial today by visiting squarespace.com/babish to get 10% off your first purchase. (light upbeat music)
