Green Sichuan Pepper Fish (Tengjiaoyu, 藤椒鱼)

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Green Sichuan Pepper Fish

In Praise of Green Mala~~

What do you do with green Sichuan pepper, some readers and shoppers have asked. Well, there’s lots you can do with this mesmerizing spice, I would say, but you should probably start with this Green Sichuan Pepper Fish to experience the full power and potential of qinghuajiao. If you’ve eaten at Chengdu Taste in L.A.’s San Gabriel Valley (or any of their many other locations) you might have ordered this dish (called Boiled Fish in Green Pepper Sauce), as it’s a crowd favorite there. Otherwise, think of it as the green version of the better-known shuizhuyu, or water-boiled fish, which is fish filets in a sea of red chili bean paste, red chilies and red Sichuan pepper.

This dish, 藤椒鱼, called tengjiaoyu in Chinese, is fish filets in a sea of green vegetables, green chilies, green Sichuan pepper and green Sichuan pepper oil. If you’ve met and liked red Sichuan pepper, then you have to meet its green cousin, which is a different species and has an altogether different aroma and flavor. It’s more floral and fresh tasting, more spring and summer, than red Sichuan pepper’s earthy and musky, fall and winter taste. (Both have a citrus zing and are members of the citrus family, rutaceae, not the peppercorn family.)

Fresh tengjiao, green Sichuan pepper
Fresh tengjiao, a type of green Sichuan pepper, that we sampled at the Yaomazi factory. It was on its way to becoming the tengjiao oil we carry at The Mala Market

Green Sichuan Pepper vs. Tengjiao

Tengjiao, sometimes called vine pepper or rattan pepper in English, actually refers to a slightly different green-colored Sichuan pepper than qinghuajiao and is usually eaten fresh. In Chengdu itself, you’d find a branch—or five—of fresh green tengjiao on top of this dish (and many others). It would be just-picked if was the summer harvest season. You rarely see fresh tengjiao in the U.S., however, even at restaurants like Chengdu Taste, because the only good preservation technique is freezing and, even then, it’s really not the same as fresh tengjiao.

Fortunately for us, the other way that tengjiao can be preserved is in oil. Our Yaomazi tengjiao oil is made from just-picked tengjiao, the essence and numbing potency nicely preserved in the cold-pressed rapeseed oil. So we’ll use both dried green Sichuan pepper and tengjiao oil to top this dish and make it taste of Sichuan.

You probably won’t find a recipe for green Sichuan pepper fish—or any other dish using qing huajiao—in English-language Chinese or Sichuan cookbooks. Green Sichuan pepper has been popular in Sichuan only for the past couple decades—and available in the U.S. for only a few years—so hasn’t made it into the cookbook canon.

I came up with my own recipe for this dish a few years ago based on some recipes on the Chinese web, but note that this recipe is a completely revamped version of the recipe I first published back in 2017. I took many shortcuts to this restaurant dish back then, but after recently revisiting the recipe, I determined that it is more than worth the extra effort to make it the restaurant way—by starting with a homemade fish stock (instead of boxed chicken stock) and finishing with the hot tengjiao oil instead of omitting it as before, since it provides the true tengjiao essence of the dish.

The recipe now also more closely follows the method for making red shuizhuyu, and is all the better for it. 

This green mala dish calls for green seasonings and green vegetables, including cucumber and celery

Choosing Vegetables and Fish for Tengjiaoyu

The vegetables used in this dish may include celery or celtuce, mung bean sprouts and cucumber—plus, fresh green chilies of course, since this is a green málà (numbing and spicy) dish. All the vegetables are sliced thinly with a knife or mandoline to make sure they cook quickly in the broth.

In Sichuan, the fish used would be freshwater and probably carp. Here you can use catfish, red snapper, bass, or any other white-flesh fish you like. Whatever fish you choose, it’s important to start with a whole fish. Have the fishmonger clean and filet the fish for you, but retain the head and bones so that you can make a fish stock from them.

Prep the filets by slicing them at an angle into 1/2-inch slices and marinating in a thin cornstarch-egg white batter. This is slightly thicker than in a restaurant, but makes it easier not to overcook the fish.

Use any white fish you like; this black bass worked very well. Slice and marinate the filets, but save the head and bones to make a stock

Making the Fish Stock for Tengjiaoyu

I learned from Chef Wang’s various videos how to make a fish stock solely from the one fish you are cooking and still end up with a lovely aromatic fish stock (in addition to the filets you add later). The keys to a concentrated fish flavor are browning the head and bones in oil with ginger, garlic and green onions. Fry them slowly until all the bits are toasty brown and aromatic, about 10 minutes, then add boiling water. You then cook that for 20-25 minutes at a medium boil, reducing the stock and concentrating the flavor. Finally, you strain, add salt and white pepper and, ta-da, Chinese milky stock. If it’s milky yellow-white, then it’s right!

You can make the stock ahead, and then prep the vegetables and fish filets and finish the dish when you are ready to eat. 

Add water to the bones and aromatics and boil until it reduces and concentrates the flavor.

After straining, you’ll have a clean, aromatic Chinese white stock as the base for the tengjiaoyu.

Composition and the Finishing, Sizzling Oil Bath

  • When it’s go time, you’ll quickly stir-fry the vegetables (except the chilies), just to break their rawness, and put them in the bottom of your serving bowl. 
  • Mix the tengjiao oil with a neutral oil in a very small pan and slowly heat it up while you prepare the dish. 
  • In a wok, stir-fry some more aromatics, add your fish stock and bring it to a boil. Reduce it to a simmer, and add the marinated fish piece by piece, so they don’t stick together (easiest with your hands). Do not stir! Let them slowly poach until just done. 
  • Carefully dump the entire wok full of stock and fish on top of the waiting vegetables in your bowl. Garnish with the green chili slices and green Sichuan pepper. When the tengjiao oil is just on the border of smoking, pour it over the top of the chilies and huajiao and watch it sizzle.
  • Serve with rice. 

Green Sichuan Pepper Fish’s charm is being heavily flavored without being heavy. It may seem like a lot of spice, but this dish is meant to be quite mala. As always, you are not meant to eat the Sichuan peppercorns, but they are easy to spot and avoid in this light-colored dish. Similarly, remember to pluck your food out of the broth to put in your rice bowl and not to treat the broth like a drinkable soup.

The final step is a topping of green Sichuan pepper and green chilies and a hot sizzling oil bath. I used the celery leaf as garnish.

Serving Hotpot Style

You can also serve this, as I did here, over a flame (or induction) burner so the stock stays hot over a leisurely dinner spent fishing out the delectable morsels of fish and veg. You won’t need to pre-cook the vegetables and you’ll just barely cook the fish, so that it all finishes cooking in the pot. Otherwise, make it the same way as outlined above but building it in the hotpot instead of a bowl. Then set the hotpot on the portable cooktop and keep the broth at a simmer while you eat. 

You could even supplement with homemade chicken stock to stretch the broth enough to add additional vegetables, tofu and noodles after you finish the fish.

Green Sichuan Pepper Fish is usually composed and served in a large bowl. Alternatively, you can build it in a beautiful hotpot and keep warm at the table while you eat.

Green Sichuan Pepper Fish (Tengjiaoyu, 藤椒鱼)

By: Taylor Holliday | The Mala Market | Inspiration & Ingredients for Sichuan Cooking

Ingredients 

Fish Prep

  • 2 pound (or 2 1-pound) whole white fish, such as red snapper, bass, branzino, Spanish mackeral Have butcher clean and filet the fish but KEEP the head and bones
  • 2 tablespoons lard
  • 2 tablespoons caiziyou (roasted rapeseed oil) or other cooking oil
  • thumb ginger, thickly sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic, smashed
  • 3 green onions, trimmed and smashed
  • 8 cups boiling water
  • teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt
  • ½ teaspoon msg or chicken essence (optional)
  • ¼ teaspoon white pepper
  • 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
  • ½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
  • 1 egg white
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch

Other Prep

  • ¾ seedless English cucumber, cut vertically in thin, long slices a mandolin is perfect for this
  • 2 stalks celery, cleaned and cut at an angle in very thin slices again, a mandolin makes quick work of this
  • 1 cup mungbean sprouts
  • 2 tablespoons tengjiao oil (green Sichuan pepper oil)
  • 2 tablespoons neutral oil, such as grapeseed or avocado
  • 1 tablespoon sliced ginger
  • 1 tablespoon sliced garlic
  • 2 to 3 thinly sliced green chilies, such as serrano or jalapeno according to their heat level and your desired spiciness
  • 1 tablespoon green Sichuan peppercorns

Instructions 

Fish Preparation

  • Bring a pot of water to boil, add fish head and bones and cook at a low boil for about 2 minutes. Drain the water.
    Put the kettle on to boil the 8 cups water.
  • Heat a wok over high heat until quite hot, then lower head and add lard and oil. When oil is hot, add the drained fish head and bones, sliced ginger, smashed garlic and green onions and cook over low to medium heat about 10 minutes, or until everything is lightly browned.
  • Add the 8 cups boiling water to the wok, then lower heat and cook the stock at a medium boil for about 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally. When the stock has reduced and the flavor concentrated, remove from heat and strain through a fine-mesh strainer to remove all loose bits. It will be milky yellow-white, which is correct for Chinese fish stock. Add the 1½ teaspoons salt, msg and white pepper. Taste and add more seasoning if needed.
  • While stock is simmering, slice the fish filets on an angle into pieces ½-inch thick. Add Shaoxing wine, ½ teaspoon salt, egg white and 2 tablespoons cornstarch. Mix thoroughly.

Dish Completion

  • When all other ingredients are sliced and prepped, heat clean wok over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon oil. Add cucumber, celery and bean sprouts and stir-fry briefly, just enough to break their rawness, not cook them through. Remove them to a deep serving bowl.
  • Add the tengjiao oil and neutral oil to a very small sauce pan and slowly heat them up while you cook the fish.
  • Add another 2 tablespoons oil to the wok and stir-fry the sliced ginger and sliced garlic briefly. Return the fish stock to the wok and bring to a boil.
  • Reduce heat and add the fish slices to the simmering stock piece by piece to make sure they don't stick together (easiest done with your hands). Do not stir. Make sure the stock is not at a boil, as you want to gently poach the fish. Cook until fish is just cooked through, as you don't want to overcook it.
  • Pour the full contents of the wok over the waiting vegetables in the large serving bowl. Top the fish with the fresh chili slices and green Sichuan pepper. When the tengjiao oil mixture is bordering on smoking (but NOT smoking), pour it over the top of the dish, where it will sizzle the chilies and Sichuan pepper and release their flavors.
  • Serve with rice and remember not to eat the Sichuan pepper or drink the broth. Spoon morsels of fish and vegetable onto your rice.

Notes

This dish can also be served hotpot style. You will not need to pre-cook the vegetables, just layer them in the bottom of a hotpot. Follow all other steps above, just barely cooking the fish before pouring it into the hotpot. Use a portable burner to keep the pot simmering at table as you eat. 
If you like, add homemade chicken stock to stretch the broth enough to add additional vegetables, tofu and noodles after you finish the fish.

Tried this recipe?

About Taylor Holliday

The Mala Market all began when Taylor, a former journalist, created this blog as a place to document her adventures learning to cook Sichuan food for Fongchong, her recently adopted 11-year-old daughter. They discovered through the years that the secret to making food that tastes like it would in China is using the same ingredients that are used in China. The mother-daughter team eventually began visiting Sichuan’s factories and farms together and, in 2016, opened The Mala Market, America’s source for heritage Sichuan ingredients and Chinese pantry essentials.

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21 Comments

  1. This version is as close to the restaurant dish as I can remember. Really brought me back there. Absolutely nailed it. Thank you for your work!

    PS – I used redfish