Recipe - Szechuan-Style Sliced Fish

1 pound Fresh red snapper
OR grouper
1 teaspoon Cornstarch
1 Egg white
1 teaspoon Peanut oil
1 ounce Tree ears
1 lg Red bell pepper
2 ounce Snow peas
2 ounce Water chestnuts
1 Inch peeled ginger root
1 Scallion
1 teaspoon Minced garlic
2 tablespoon Soy sauce
One half cup Chicken broth
One half tablespoon Sugar
One half tablespoon Vinegar
1 tablespoon Cornstarch
1 tablespoon Sherry
2 cup Peanut oil; for frying

Slice the fish into pieces 1/3 in. thick and 2 in. square. Combine the fish
with the cornstarch, egg white, and 1 tsp. peanut oil, and let stand for 20
minutes. Cover the tree ears with warm water and let stand for 20 minutes.
Core and seed the red pepper and cut it into 1 in. squares. Snap the snow
peas. Rinse the water chestnuts. Cut the ginger into thin slivers, the
scallion, into thin slices, and finely chop the garlic. Combine the
ingredients for the sauce. Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan ~ it should
be very hot before adding the fish. Add the fish, piece by piece, and cook
for 1 minute. Transfer the fish with a slotted spoon to a strainer over a
bowl to catch the oil. Discard all but One fourth cup oil from wok and heat it
again. Add the ginger, scallion, and garlic, and stirfry over high heat
for 10 seconds. Add the pepper, water chestnuts, and pea pods, and stirfry
for 1 minute. Add the tree ear and fish. Thoroughly mix the sauce and add
it to the wok. Cook the fish, stirring gently, for 1 minute, or until the
sauce thickens.

This recipe calls for a slippery black fungus called tree ears in North
America, cloud ears in China, and jelly mushrooms in Thailand. Tree ears
have very little flavor and are chiefly prized for their slippery, crisp
consistency. Available dried at Oriental markets, tree ears will keep
indefinately. They need only be soaked in warm water for 20 minutes before
using.

Temperature(s): HOT Effort: AVERAGE Time: 01:00 Source: CHRISTINE LEE'S
Comments: THUNDERBIRD MOTEL, COLLINS AVE, Comments: MIAMI BEVERAGE: TEA

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini