Stewed Eel Shanghai Style

Fish and Seafood

Stewed Eel Shanghai Style
Ingredients:
1 pound eel, or more
1 teaspoon coarse salt or one-half teaspoon table salt
6 Tablespoons soy sauce, half light and half dark
2 Tablespoons rice wine
2 cups corn oil
3 ounces pork
6 cloves garlic
6 pieces tangerine peel or one teaspoon tangerine or orange juice
6 scallions
6 shiitake mushrooms, soaked twenty minutes, then drained
1 Tablespoon sugar
dash ground white pepper
3 cups chicken stock
2 Tablespoons cornstarch in like amount of cold water
Preparation:
1. Rub eel with salt inside and out, then rinse in cold water and blanch in boiling water for one minute, then drain.
2. Mix eel with soy sauces and wine and set aside in the refrigerator for half an hour, then drain and reserve marinade.
3. Heat oil, remove eel from refrigerator and deep fry the drained eel for one minute, drain and set on paper towels to drain, and remove oil from pan and set aside.
4. Heat two tablespoons of the reserved oil and fry the pork for one minute, then add garlic, scallions, tangerine peel, and mushrooms and fry for another minute, remove from the pan.
5. In stove-top casserole or heavy pan, put in eel, reserved marinade, vegetable ingredients with what they were cooked in, the sugar, pepper, and stock and bring to the boil then simmer for half an hour (more if eel is not yet tender). Remove the eel to a serving dish.
6. Bring remaining liquid back to the boil, then add cornstarch and water mixture and thicken, pour over the eel and serve.

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