Seafood Made Simple: My secret for a perfect sweet and sour dish

Aishling Moore: I’m using ling, a member of the cod family for this recipe. Picture Chani Anderson

Sweet and sour was one my favourite dinners as a child; and one I still crave now as an adult. Its form was either in a jar poured over some stir-fried chicken and vegetables or, if I had my way when ordering a takeaway, in a Styrofoam cup, fit for dipping.

A thick and syrupy sauce, its appeal must have had something to do with its luminous orange appearance and, from my recollection. its sickly-sweet viscosity.

Sweet and sour is a taste combination that I love. Tart poached rhubarb with a sweetened rice pudding; the perfect balanced ketchup made with summer tomatoes; a well measured honey and lemon glaze.

My palate has matured and I now lean more towards the sour side of things. When I’m looking to cut fat or offset sweetness, I rely heavily on vinegars. We go through litres of unpasteurised apple cider vinegar from Mealagulla Apple Farm every week at the restaurant, vital for balancing dishes and seasoning sauces.

For sweet, I love using honey in my cooking. Its complexities add so much to a dish, rather than the straight-up sweetness that you’ll get when using sugar.

The secret to achieving a still crispy coating on the fish after it’s been drenched in the sauce is the potato starch. A fantastic ingredient to have in your cupboard, it is essential for producing crisp textured coatings and a brilliant substitute for flour if you are avoiding gluten. You’ll find potato starch in all Asian supermarkets and most health food stores.

I’m using ling, a member of the cod family for this recipe. An underrated fish native to our waters, it’s wonderfully firm in texture and very reasonably priced when compared with most round fish.

This dish would also work with diced chunks of monkfish, cod, and pollock.

Sweet and sour ling

recipe by:Aishling Moore

This dish would also work with diced chunks of monkfish, cod, and pollock.

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 5 mins

Cooking Time

 15 mins

Total Time

 20 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 450g ling, skinned and diced

• 1 egg white

• 120g potato starch

• ½ tsp fine sea salt

• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil

• 1 small onion. sliced

• 1 thumb-sized piece ginger, finely sliced

• 1 small carrot sliced in rounds

• 1 bunch scallions, white part cut into 3 cm batons, greens reserved for garnish

• 1 red bell pepper, cut into chunks

• ½ a pineapple, cut into chunks

• 60g honey

• 60ml red wine vinegar

• 100g ketchup

• 1 tbsp soy sauce

Method

1. For the sweet and sour vegetables: Heat a large heavy-based pot or wok on medium-high heat.

2. Add the rapeseed oil and cook the onion, ginger and scallion batons for 2-3 minutes. Stir all the time, you don’t want to develop any colour on the vegetables.

3. Add the diced pepper and pineapple and cook for 2 minutes.

4. Next add the honey and cook for 1 minute on high heat to allow to caramelise slightly.

5. Pour in the red wine vinegar and boil to deglaze.

6. Add the ketchup and soy sauce and mix to combine, coating all the vegetables in the sauce. Keep warm and set aside while preparing the fish.

7. To cook the ling: In a medium bowl, whisk the egg white until frothy.

8. Add the ling and mix to coat well.

9. In a separate medium bowl, add the potato starch and fine sea salt and mix well.

10. Next, working in batches, toss the egg white-coated fish through potato starch, shaking off the excess as you go.

11. Place on a large plate on a baking tray.

12. Preheat a deep fryer to 180°C.

13. Again, working in batches, fry the fish until crisp and cooked through. This will take approximately 2 minutes. Drain on kitchen paper to remove any excess oil.

14. To serve, add the crisp cooked chunks of ling to the sweet and sour vegetables. Toss to coat the pieces of fish in the sauce.

15. Arrange on a large platter sharing-style, sprinkle with the reserved scallion greens and some egg fried or boiled rice to accompany.

Fish tales

The cooking in this recipe happens quite quickly, so make sure you have all your ingredients prepared as per the recipe before you begin.

Here I’ve used a red wine vinegar, to achieve that recognisable shade associated with sweet and sour. You could use just about any vinegar; this recipe works particularly well with apple cider vinegar.

Sometimes I’ll add a little cider to this sauce.

If you’d rather not use the deep fryer, you could shallow fry the pieces of ling in a large heavy-based frying pan in a couple centimetres of flavourless high smoke point vegetable oil.

Alternatively, you could avoid both coating and frying the fish and add simply the diced fresh fish to the sauce to cook through.

If you are wary of preparing the fish, ask your fishmonger to skin and dice the fish for you.