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Sweet & Sour Fish Fillet

A favorite Chinese take away. This version has the right amount of sweetness & sourness just the way I love it!
Course Main Course
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 5
Author Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook

Ingredients

For the coating:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 2 tsp vegetable stock powder (optional)

For the sauce:

  • 1 cup water
  • 2/3 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup white vinegar
  • 4 tbsp ketchup
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • salt & pepper to taste

For the slurry:

  • 1 tbsp cornstarch
  • 2 tbsp water

Others:

  • cooking oil
  • 250 g fish fillet cut into medium chunks
  • 4 cloves garlic chopped
  • 1 onion sliced
  • 1/2 cup red bell pepper sliced
  • 1/2 cup green bell pepper sliced
  • 1/2 cup carrot slices
  • 3/4 cup pineapple chunks drained
  • sesame seeds for garnish
  • water

Instructions

  1. Prepare a pan over medium heat and add cooking oil. While waiting for the cooking oil to be hot, let’s coat the fish fillet.

For the coating:

  1. Add the coating ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
  2. Get another bowl and add half of the mixture to this bowl.
  3. Add water (portion by portion) to one of the bowls until you get a runny (not too runny) consistency.
  4. Coat each slices of fish fillet - (1) dry, (2) wet, (3) dry.
  5. Place all the coated fish fillet on a plate.

  6. Frying: Fry the coated fish fillet in hot oil until golden brown. When done, put them on a strainer or stack of paper towels to drain excess oil. You can do the frying in batches to make sure not to overcrowd the pan.

For the sauce:

  1. Using another pan (or the same pan), add cooking oil (I used the cooking oil in frying the fish fillet).
  2. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Next, add onion and cook until soft.
  3. Add carrot slices and enough water just to cook the carrots.
  4. Add bell peppers and cook for 1-2 minutes.
  5. Pour all the sauce ingredients to the pan and mix until sugar is dissolved.
  6. Add pineapple chunks. This time, you can also do a taste test and add more vinegar or sugar if necessary. Don’t forget to season with salt & pepper.
  7. Add the slurry and let the sauce thicken (see notes) and immediately turn off the heat. You can now add the fried fish fillet.
  8. Transfer to serving plate, garnish with sesame seeds. Enjoy with mixed fried rice or just plain steamed rice.

Recipe Notes

  • You can dip the fish fillet in the coating once (wet & then dry) if you want a lighter coating.
  • Instead of fish fillet, you can use chicken (cut into chunks) and follow the same procedure. 
  • I prefer to drain the pineapple chunks before adding to the pan. You can also omit this ingredient. 
  • If you like a sauce that’s darker in color, you can add red food coloring. 
  • Don’t forget to do a taste test and adjust accordingly - you can add vinegar or sugar as per your liking. 
  • The sauce thickens more the longer you let it simmer. 

 

If you make this recipe, please send me a photo on my Instagram account (@thenotsocreativecook).