Sea Red Fish Lips

Ingredients:

Soaked fish lips...750 g, refined salt...25 g, crab roe...125 g, scallion sections...10 g, red carrot...100 g, ginger pieces...5 g, wet starch...15 g, chicken and duck broth...600 g, Shaoxing wine...20 g, rendered lard...125 g, monosodium glutamate...7.5 g.

Method:

1. Rinse the soaked fish lips with cold water, cut into strips 10 cm long and 1.65 cm wide, blanch in boiling water to initially remove the fishy smell. After removing, check them, pick out the softer ones and put them in a bowl for later use; put the firmer ones in another bowl, add 5 g Shaoxing wine, 1 g refined salt, 2.5 g monosodium glutamate, scallion sections, ginger pieces and 300 g chicken and duck broth. Steam over high heat for about 10 minutes, until the fish lips are as soft as tofu, then take out. Then, combine the fish lips from the two bowls together, drain off the original broth and set aside.

2. Wash the carrots, peel them, and cut into fine shreds. Pour the rendered lard into a wok, heat over high heat to 30-40% hot, add the carrot shreds, immediately switch to low heat and fry for 10 minutes. After the lard turns red, remove the carrot shreds, leaving only the red oil for later use.

3. Pour 100 g chicken and duck broth into the wok, add 0.5 g refined salt, 5 g Shaoxing wine, 1.5 g monosodium glutamate, add the fish lips, then simmer over low heat. After the broth comes to a boil, drain off the broth, and arrange the fish lips neatly on a plate.

4. Place the wok on the heat, pour in half of the red oil, add the crab roe and 5 g Shaoxing wine, 0.5 g refined salt, 2 g monosodium glutamate, 100 g chicken and duck broth, and stew over high heat for 6 to 7 minutes, so that the flavors of the red oil and Shaoxing wine seep into the crab roe. When the crab roe becomes finely crumbled, drizzle in the thinned wet starch to thicken the sauce. At this point, remove the wok from the heat, pour in the remaining half of the red oil, stir-fry into a crab roe red sauce and pour it over the fish lips. It is then ready.

Notes:

1. Do not steam the fish lips for too long, to prevent them from steaming into mush.

2. When stir-frying the carrot shreds, use low heat; avoid burning the carrot shreds, and the oil color must not turn red.

3. The thickness of the starch-thickened sauce should be such that it can cling to a ladle.

Flavor characteristics:

1. Fish lips: made from the upper lips of fish such as the pear-headed skate and shark. The lips of the pear-headed skate are the best, shaped like a "triangle", nearly white in color, glossy, highly translucent, and of good quality. They are produced in Zhanjiang and Shantou in Guangdong, Ningde in Fujian, the coastal areas of Shandong, Hainan Island, Zhoushan and Wenzhou in Zhejiang, and other places.

2. "Sea Red Fish Lips" is one of the famous dishes of the Beijing Fangshan Restaurant. The restaurant is located north of Qiong Island in Beihai Park. After the Revolution of 1911, the cooks of the Qing palace imperial kitchen scattered among the people one after another. In 1925, Zhao Renzhai, who had once worked in the Qing palace food storehouse, opened a restaurant in Beihai Park, hired several former Qing palace cooks, and imitated the methods of the Qing palace imperial kitchen to make various dishes and snacks, hence the name Fangshan. The main characteristics of its dishes are carefully selected ingredients, fine preparation, beautiful colors, mellow and fresh taste, a unique style, and a distinctive flavor.

3. This dish uses crab roe for flavor and carrots for color; the sauce is rich and the taste is deep, the color is red and lustrous, soft yet firm, with a strong crab flavor. It is suitable for making when crabs are fat in autumn.