·5/19/2026
from
# Iron Wok Fish with Corn Bread
---
**Ingredients**
- One whole carp or grass fish, 2kg+
- Corn and wheat flour dough, mixed and shaped into thick round cakes
- Spring onions, ginger, garlic
- Dark bean paste (豆瓣酱)
- Light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, Shaoxing rice wine, black rice vinegar
- Dried chili, Sichuan peppercorns
---
One fish. One wok. No shortcuts.
Score the fish deep on both sides — diagonal cuts all the way to the bone. This isn't just for looks. It's how the heat gets in, how the sauce gets through, how the flesh stays together when everything else is going at full flame.
Get the wok screaming hot before the fish goes in. Lay it down flat, press it against the iron, and leave it. Don't touch it. A properly seasoned wok doesn't stick — interference does. When the skin releases clean and golden, flip it once. That's the whole frying step.
Pull the fish out. In the same wok, drop the bean paste into the residual oil. It needs to fry, not simmer — the red oil has to separate before the ginger, garlic, and onion go in. That smell when the aromatics hit the paste is the base of everything.
Return the fish to the wok. Add water or stock to come halfway up the fish, bring it to a hard boil, then drop to medium. While the fish braises, hand-press the dough cakes flat and press them one by one against the inner wall of the wok, above the waterline. Put the lid on.
Fifteen minutes. When you lift the lid, the steam hits you first. Below it: the bread cakes are golden on the outside, soft and wet on the bottom from the fish steam, with dark patches where they touched the hot iron. The fish is glazed and collapsing, the sauce thick and clinging.
Eat the bread first, before it cools. The bottom is the best part.
---
**Ingredients**
- One whole carp or grass fish, 2kg+
- Corn and wheat flour dough, mixed and shaped into thick round cakes
- Spring onions, ginger, garlic
- Dark bean paste (豆瓣酱)
- Light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, Shaoxing rice wine, black rice vinegar
- Dried chili, Sichuan peppercorns
---
One fish. One wok. No shortcuts.
Score the fish deep on both sides — diagonal cuts all the way to the bone. This isn't just for looks. It's how the heat gets in, how the sauce gets through, how the flesh stays together when everything else is going at full flame.
Get the wok screaming hot before the fish goes in. Lay it down flat, press it against the iron, and leave it. Don't touch it. A properly seasoned wok doesn't stick — interference does. When the skin releases clean and golden, flip it once. That's the whole frying step.
Pull the fish out. In the same wok, drop the bean paste into the residual oil. It needs to fry, not simmer — the red oil has to separate before the ginger, garlic, and onion go in. That smell when the aromatics hit the paste is the base of everything.
Return the fish to the wok. Add water or stock to come halfway up the fish, bring it to a hard boil, then drop to medium. While the fish braises, hand-press the dough cakes flat and press them one by one against the inner wall of the wok, above the waterline. Put the lid on.
Fifteen minutes. When you lift the lid, the steam hits you first. Below it: the bread cakes are golden on the outside, soft and wet on the bottom from the fish steam, with dark patches where they touched the hot iron. The fish is glazed and collapsing, the sauce thick and clinging.
Eat the bread first, before it cools. The bottom is the best part.
29