Sprucing Up Leftover Fish

Each Saturday, my paternal grandmother goes through her weekly tradition of preparing dinner for all of her kids and grandkids. Since it’s rare that I make a debut, whenever I do, it’s like Christmas in the form of food. She tries to prepare all of my favorite veggies, meats, and fish. That’s the thing about Asian meals- there’s always a dish at the table that’s bound to cover at least one part of the food pyramid. And Grandmother always cooks plenty so when dinner is over, I get the doggie bag.

I absolutely love fish so whenever I come, Grandmother usually lightly fries several small cods or roasts a salmon. Even before walking through the door, I can immediately sense what she’s making. It’s the light cod she’s chosen this time, and I can already imagine the many ways I can modify the leftovers.

Westerns generally aren’t familiar with fermented sweet rice. It’s literally rice that’s fermented until it’s sweet and of course, has an alcoholic tang to it. Actually, it’s more than a tang- you could say that it reeks of alcohol. You can find it at any Asian store or even make it yourself. It’s traditionally served with sweet rice balls, and once I overestimated my tolerance by having a heap-full of it in the morning. Subsequently, I arrived to class somewhat buzzed.

Basically, I wanted to make a sweet glaze for the fish. I reheated it in the skillet and then left it to rest on a plate. Then in a saucepan, I made the glaze.

Ingredients:

1 cup water

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp sweet fermented rice

Pinch of sugar

Recipe:

In the saucepan, heat the water, soy sauce, and sugar.

Wait until it simmers and bubbles and add the sweet fermented rice.

You want to wait until the sauce thickens a bit to the viscosity of a glaze.

The rice still has that note of sweetness and the alcohol seeps its way, richly flavoring the fish. Think of it as using wine, except… not really. You don’t have to use this for lightly fried fish. My mom used to roast fish and then use this not as a glaze, but as a sauce. Just heat the mixture until its hot and still of a watery consistency.

And of course, what’s a meal without veggies? Bok choy is delicious when it’s lightly stir fried with some oil, garlic and sauce. Yep, that’s all there is to it.

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