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Your support makes all the difference.This is traditionally made with freshwater fish, such as carp, and the "five willow" refers to the five shredded vegetables that would remove the muddy taste from the freshwater fish. A whole 2-2.5kg fish or 2 x 1.5kg fish should be plenty for six people. You can use anything from sea bass, sea bream, snapper, etc, or if your fishmonger sells carp, then give it a try.
1 large 2-2.5kg fish or 2 x 1.5kg ones, scaled and gutted
6-8 fresh or dried shiitake mushrooms (soaked overnight if dried)
1tsp salt
Vegetable or corn oil for deep frying
50g root ginger, scraped and shredded
4 spring onions, trimmed and shredded on the angle
1 large carrot, peeled and shredded into matchstick-sized pieces
1 stick of celery, peeled if necessary and shredded into matchstick-sized pieces
1 small green pepper, shredded
2 red chillies, seeded and finely shredded
2tbsp light soy sauce
3tbsp sugar
3tbsp Chinese black rice vinegar
150ml fish stock
1tbsp cornflour
2tsp roasted sesame oil
Score the fish 5 or 6 times diagonally then rub the salt into the fish. Heat about 4-5cm of the vegetable oil in a wok or deep fat fryer to 160-180C. Holding the fish by its tail, gently lower it into the oil and cook the fish for about 3-4 minutes on each side until the fish is just cooked and crisp. Remove from the oil and drain on some kitchen paper. Place on a serving dish and keep warm in a low oven.
Pour away most of the oil from the wok, leaving a couple of tablespoons. Remove the stalks from the mushrooms and slice them thinly. Stir fry the mushrooms, ginger, spring onion, carrot, green pepper, celery and chilli for a couple of minutes. Add the soy, sugar, rice vinegar and stock, and bring to the boil. Mix enough water with the cornflour to make a thin paste then stir into the sauce and simmer for a couple of minutes. Add the sesame oil, then spoon the mixture over the fish and serve.
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