Sizzling Shredded Eel 响油鳝糊

How it is made

In the method published by Xinhua Daily, the eel shreds go into a pan of cold water with salt, vinegar, Shaoxing wine, ginger and spring onion and are heated to a bare simmer to remove the fishy smell. They soak for two minutes until soft, are cut into six-centimetre lengths, and are slid through hot oil for ten seconds.

Ginger, spring onion and chopped garlic are stir-fried, the eel goes back in, and Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, sugar, fragrant vinegar and wet starch bind it into a thick sauce. The eel is spread outwards on the plate to leave a hollow in the centre, which is filled with crushed garlic, shredded ham, ginger and spring onion. Sesame oil is heated with Sichuan pepper until fragrant, the peppercorns are lifted out, and the hot oil is poured over the plate.

Flavour and texture

The name xiangyou (响油), "sounding oil", comes from the hot oil that must still be sizzling when the dish reaches the table. Diners who know the dish judge it by sound, colour and taste: the colour should lean towards deep red, and the dish should feel rich with oil without being greasy. The eel strips are soft, the sauce thick, and the seasoning salty with a slight sweetness.

Where it comes from

Shredded eel has long been eaten in China. In his Qing-dynasty food book Suiyuan Shidan (随园食单), the poet Yuan Mei (袁枚) advised stir-frying the shreds until slightly scorched, as with pork or chicken, and never adding water. Eel appears in the local cooking of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Anhui, but Xinhua Daily names the Suzhou version as the best known. Eel in thick sauce began as a home dish; adding "sizzling oil" to the name made it a Suzhou specialty.

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