Crucian carp
The crucian carp, a small round-bodied freshwater fish with sweet flesh and many fine bones, best handled in a soup bag. Wiped dry and fried with ginger to deep gold (the essential step) it boils into a famously milky, sweet broth with papaya, daikon or rice beans. Small enough that one or two fish make a family pot. Not sold fresh in Australia: use one whole silver perch, or two or three small bream.
TCM properties
Nature · neutral Flavour · sweet Meridians · spleen、stomach、large intestine
Traditional food therapy
In Cantonese food therapy crucian carp is used to strengthen the spleen, dispel dampness, open the appetite and harmonise the centre, with a long folk tradition of serving it to nursing mothers.
Cautions: read first
- Full of fine bones, so use a soup bag to strain them out and guard against choking, especially for the old and the young
- Those with gout should take care with rich, milky fish soups
Preparation
Clean it and pat it dry, then fry it with ginger until both sides are golden before boiling (this is the key to a milky soup); tie it up in a fish soup bag.
Origin
Freshwater pond farming in central and southern China. Not farmed or sold fresh in Australia, though frozen imported fish turns up at Chinese grocers now and then. Use one whole silver perch (銀鱸), farmed and sold year-round at Sydney Fish Market and Chinese fish shops, or two or three small bream, which Australian Chinese cooks already call 澳洲鯽魚. Fry the fish golden before pouring on boiling water and hold a hard rolling boil: that step is what turns the broth milky, not the species
Availability in Australia
Easy to find
