Gourmet Cooking on a College Budget · Episode 01
Orange Peel Fish Stir-Fry with Sweet Rice
By Author Jonathan David
Watch the full cooking show
For the first episode, I breaded bite-size pieces of scrod with crumbs from a dried baguette, flash-fried some onion, and finished both in a glossy orange-peel glaze with ginger, garlic, and Thai chiles. Sweet rice catches the extra sauce. The best bite has a little fish, onion, and orange peel on the fork.
Ingredients
Makes about 2 servings. Amounts are approximate. I measured the main sauce ingredients by eye on the show, so smaller additions are listed as dashes or to taste.
Fish, onion, and rice
- 1 small scrod fillet, cut into bite-size pieces
- Salt and black pepper, to season the fish
- All-purpose flour and dry breadcrumbs, enough to coat the fish
- 1 egg, beaten
- Neutral frying oil
- About ½ onion, sliced, or a little more to taste
- 1 cup sweet rice (glutinous rice)
- About 2 cups water as used in the show. See the review for the smaller amount I’d try next.
Orange-peel glaze
- 1 orange, for peel and freshly pressed juice
- About 1½ teaspoons brown sugar
- About 1 tablespoon each rice vinegar and cooking rice wine
- A dash of black sesame oil for the glaze, plus about 1 teaspoon sesame oil for the wok
- Whole Thai chiles, stems removed, to taste
- Scallion whites, garlic, and fresh ginger, finely minced, to taste
- A dash each of oyster sauce and sriracha, plus a little soy sauce, chile paste, and thin teriyaki sauce
- About 1 teaspoon potato starch and a pinch of salt
- Scallion greens, sliced, for garnish, plus soy sauce and chile paste to serve if desired
How I made it on the show
- Start the sweet rice. Gently rinse the rice and put it in a saucepan with the water. Cook uncovered over very low heat, stirring occasionally. When the grains are almost tender, take the pan off the heat, cover it, and let it rest for about 10 minutes while you finish the fish and glaze.
- Mix the orange glaze. Take wide, thin strips of the colored peel, leaving the white pith behind. Combine the peel with brown sugar, rice vinegar, cooking rice wine, a dash of black sesame oil, whole Thai chiles, and freshly squeezed orange juice. Finely mince the scallion whites, garlic, and ginger and add them to the sauce. Stir in the oyster sauce, sriracha, soy sauce, chile paste, thin teriyaki sauce, potato starch, and pinch of salt. Save the scallion greens for plating.
- Bread the fish. Pat the fillet dry, check for pin bones, and cut it into nuggets. Season with salt and pepper, then coat each piece in flour, beaten egg, and dry breadcrumbs, in that order.
- Fry the fish and flash-fry the onion. Fry the fish in hot oil until the coating is golden and the center reaches 145°F (63°C). Lift the nuggets out and let them drain. Give the onion a quick dip in the hot oil, then lift it out while it still has some bite.
- Finish in the wok. Heat the wok with about a teaspoon of sesame oil. Stir the sauce again to redistribute the potato starch. Add the fish and onion, then pour in the sauce and toss briefly over high heat until the glaze turns glossy and coats everything.
- Plate and garnish. Spoon the sweet rice onto the plate and serve it with the glazed fish and onion. Finish with sliced scallion greens. Add a little soy sauce and chile paste to the rice if you like.
“And that’s the flavor.”
Taste the finished dish
Tasting & Review · Short 1
Tasting & Review · Short 2
The review and what I’d change next time
The sauce was the best part of the dish. Scrod gave me the mild, flaky bite I wanted, and flash-frying the onions gave them a texture I’d keep. The coating came out golden and crisp, then softened when I poured the glaze over it. The rice needed a little less water.
- Serve the glaze on the side. Keep the breaded fish unglazed until serving and dip each nugget into the orange glaze as you eat. That’s the first change I’d make to keep the crust crisp.
- Try ¼ cup less water for the rice. I used roughly 2 cups of water for 1 cup of sweet rice. Next time I’d start near 1¾ cups for this same rice, keep the low uncovered cook, and finish with the covered rest. This is the amount I’d test next with that bag of rice.
- Lightly candy the peel if you prefer less bitterness. Try simmering the strips for a couple of minutes in about ½ cup water and ½ cup sugar, then lift the peel out and add it to the glaze. I liked the slight bitterness with the fish and onion, so I’d keep this optional.
- Experiment with a second fry. If I wanted to toss the fish in the glaze again, I’d test a second fry after cooling the nuggets. I’ve tried that approach with tempura. For this batch, my first choice would still be to serve the glaze on the side.