A cracking weeknight supper packed with flavour and ‘mouth-fragrance’
I might be exaggerating, but to nine-year-old me it felt like 5,000 fishes. In 1982, there was a BBC1 TV show called Pebble Mill at One, which featured Glynn Christian as its pioneering TV chef, who I think paved the way for the likes of Keith Floyd and all the celebrity chefs who followed. Glynn used to cook privately for my parents’ business partners, and through this connection my brother Al got his 15 minutes of fame at the age of 13. I don’t remember the whys and wherefores; I just knew that he was going to cook on the television! I don’t know if there was a brief, but my pa decided that Al should cook a fish dish: namely golden pan-fried fish with ginger and spring onions. The Chinese characters for this dish translate literally as “fried, sealed fish”, which loses all of its poetry, but what it lacks in translation, it makes up for in flavour.
My father is not a soft taskmaster, so for weeks running up to the event, he must have made Al cook this dish every night, sometimes even twice a night, until he was satisfied that he had perfected the technique. He would stand behind Al, watching critically over his shoulder. The ginger was too fine, then not fine enough. The spring onions were cut unevenly. The fish was cooked, but not golden – the heat was too low; the fish was golden but not cooked – the heat was too high. I remember the focus, the concentration, the single-mindedness of those cooking sessions, and it felt as if we were having to eat 5,000 fishes in a month.
Amy Poon is the founder of the Chinese heritage food brand Poon’s London. Rachel returns next week.
The Guardian aims to publish recipes for sustainable fish. Check ratings in your region: UK; Australia; US.
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