Vegetables add color, nutrition to sweet-sour fish

Among Julia Sia Ing’s favorite dishes by her author-mother Mary Sia is this recipe for sweet-sour fish with vegetables. Sia uses colorful vegetables to add nutrition as well as texture and eye-appeal to a simple dish: a whole fish, flash-fried and drizzled attractively with the sauce.

“The golden fish should appear to be lying in a bed of brightly colored seaweed,” Sia wrote in “Mary Sia’s Classic Chinese Cookbook,” first published by UH Press in 1957.

Skilled and fearless, Sia bastes the fish with hot oil; we suggest you wear a silicone glove or at least an oven mitt.

Sweet-Sour Fish

1 whole fish, gutted and cleaned (about 1 pound)

3 tablespoons cornstarch whisked into 2 tablespoons water

3 cups vegetable oil

3/4 cup shredded or thinly julienned vegetables (see note)

Clean fish and make diagonal slashes on each side from tail to head. Rub with cornstarch slurry. Heat deep, heavy-bottomed pan (such as a Dutch oven) or large wok until quite hot; add oil and heat to 350 degrees. Holding fish over pan, use ladle to scoop up hot oil and baste slashes in the fish. Ease fish into oil and fry until light golden brown. Remove to warm platter.

Pour off oil. Reheat pan, add 2 tablespoons oil and fry vegetables 1 minute. Place vegetables in sweet-sour sauce (recipe follows), cook 1 minute and drizzle over fish. Serve immediately.

Note: Sia specifies shredding, but a thin julienne is more attractive. She uses onions, carrots, fresh ginger and bell pepper — preferably red or yellow. Strips of green onion or shredded Napa cabbage or strips of any of the “choys” (Chinese cabbages) might be used. Or Sia suggests 3/4 cup Chinese pickled vegetables, found jarred in Chinese groceries.

Approximate nutritional information, per serving (without sweet-sour sauce and using tilapia): 260 calories, 16 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 55 mg cholesterol, 350 mg sodium, 7 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, no sugar, 23 g protein

Mary Sia’s Sweet-Sour Sauce

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup vinegar

6 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon soy sauce

In saucepan, blend ingredients, whisking well, and bring to a boil, boiling for 1-1/2 minutes. Add vegetables and simmer 1/2 minute. Pour over fish on warm platter. Serves 4.

Approximate nutritional information, per serving (per 1/4 cup sauce):

170 calories, 7 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 100 mg sodium, 27 g carbohydrate,

25 g sugar, no cholesterol, fiber or protein