Bean Sprouts with Salted Fish
Bean Sprouts with Salted Fish 豆芽炒咸鱼
Note: This was first posted in Mar 2008, now updated with new photos and improved recipe.
For someone who do not dare to eat bean sprouts since young, I would say I can cook a really good dish of bean sprouts with salted fish. I have tested this recipe with many people including older folks and they were all praises for this dish. And very strangely, I do dare to eat bean sprouts when cooked by me, in this particular way. One theory I have is that the bean sprouts are cooked just right (not raw tasting or over-cooked) which is cooked bean sprouts at its best – crunchy and sweet. My other theory which has not been disproved so far is that anything cooked in salted fish will be delicious. Cooked this way, the salted fish sort of mask the strong bean taste while still retaining bean sprouts’ natural sweetness. If you know anyone like me with an in-born intolerance for bean sprouts, I think this dish is a good “training dish” for them to learn to accept this ingredient.
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Ingredients
(Serves 2)
- 200g bean sprouts (heads and tails removed)
- 15g dried salted fish (咸鱼/”kiam hu”), soaked in water to soften, patted dry with kitchen towel, then diced
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 2 tbsp cooking oil
- 1/2 to 1 tbsp Chinese wine (Hua Tiao/Shao Hsing) – optionalDirections
1. Heat oil in wok and fry salted fish until golden brown.
2. Add garlic and stir fry for 30 seconds.
3. Add bean sprouts, stir fry over high heat briskly for about 1-2 minutes. Nicely cooked bean sprouts should be just cooked (not slightly raw) but still crunchy.
4. If you like, you can add a splash of Chinese wine along the walls of the wok just before you finish cooking.
Cooking Notes
1. I still remember childhood days where we have to help pick off the heads and ends of a huge bag of bean sprouts. For convenience, I now buy bean sprouts with heads and ends already removed (sometimes labelled with a fancy name like ‘silver sprouts’) from the local supermarket.
2. Different brands of salted fish have different degree of saltiness so you may need to experiment and adjust the quantity accordingly.
3. Variations – you can add sliced bell peppers, sliced mushrooms, pumpkin cubes and wolfberries to the basic recipe at any one time to jazz things up.
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Gimme gimme gimme. I love the combination of a bland tasting veg paired with and ingredient(salted fish of course) that punches it up. Bursts of salted fish in the dish gives it ooppmmphh!
I like your version with mushrooms, bell peppers and wolfberries. A plate of plain looking bean sprouts now looks so much more interesting! Lucky hamsters. Oh, btw, they love korean strawberries. lol
hi..wiffy..i’m going to cook beansprouts today…not much choice besides with fried salted fish…this looks good with bell pepper, mushroom and wolfberries….will add this….thks for sharing…
Hahhaa…I’m the same. I started to hate bean sprouts when I had some served outside and the sprouts had a raw taste and smell (chow chey)! Yucks! So I will have to make sure it’s fully cooked and sometimes ask my hubs to try some and tell me if its got that raw taste!
Hamster food… LOL! Some people like bean sprouts ‘undercooked’ while some like them ‘overcooked’. It’s a matter of taste so I guess if you are quite specific it’s better to cook them at home! The husband adores salted fish and chicken fried rice and we always order it at our local Chinese restaurant. Maybe I should get a pack of salted fish, hmmm…
I love bean sprout especially with salted fish and a dash of pepper.
Yes! It is a classic. I am envious that you can get bean sprouts with the ends removed! Nowadays, I just have it as it is!
i’ve been eating bean sprouts since young. yeah… almost anything cooked with salted fish is nice
i don’t remove head, only the tail coz the head can eat
Hi, can you give me some tips on how to choose good salted fish? The ones I have here come in packets and some are in tiny small pieces which don’t look very good as they are dark brown. Some in thick slices that is pale colour (which I bought) but realised that there are so many bones in it and it is a pain to pick them out, in the end I am left with so little flesh for the dish and practically thrown out 3/4 of the pack – how do we remove the bones or are they edible? Thanks!