If you are looking for a carp recipe, you could do a lot worse than this one: Chinese style crispy fried carp.
Not into carp? No biggie. This recipe will work with any fish you can fit in a wok, and in fact, I used Pacific surf perch in the picture because I didn’t have carp at the time.
But I designed this as a carp recipe for a reason: When life gives you carp, think to the East because it’s a prized fish in Asia. Over here, however, carp are normally thought of as trash fish, dirty, muddy and bony — and they can be all of these things.
To avoid this, you want to catch carp in clean water; they will not taste muddy at all. And if you can get one from cold water, the meat will be firmer than if you get one from a warm pond.
Before you start hating on me, know that carp is farmed all over the world, and indeed was brought to the United States as a food fish by the Germans in the 1800s. It is inexpensive, and, when properly farmed, firmer and cleaner-tasting than tilapia.
But, there is one thing you will need to get used to: Bones. Carp have an extra set of bones you will need to deal with, similar to pike, suckers and the well-named bonefish.
In Asian cultures, they are not so frightened of a few bones — besides, eating with chopsticks makes it easy to pick around them. Chances are, if you find an Asian carp recipe, it’ll have you dig right in, and that works well, if you are adept with chopsticks.
The technique I am using here goes a long way to thwarting the bones without chopsticks. You need to slice the carp to the backbone every 1/2 inch or so, which cuts the little bones and opens them up to the hot oil. It’s the hot oil that softens the bones to the point where you can barely notice them. It is very similar to my recipe for fried shad, which does the same thing.
Keep in mind this is a recipe for smaller carp, and in fact it is ideal for their American cousins, the suckers and the mooneyes. It is important to use smallish fish because you want them mostly or completely submerged in the raging hot oil.
The end result is really interesting. Super crispy skin, overcooked meat you don’t mind because you no longer notice the tiny bones, and fins so nutty and crispy you will be fighting over them. And the sauce! Sweet, spicy, loaded with flavor. It brightens up the whole plate of food.
Crispy Fried Carp
Ingredients
- 2 whole carp or other pan-sized fish, scaled and gutted
MARINADE
- 3 chopped green onions
- A 1-inch piece of finely chopped, peeled ginger
- 2 tablespoons Chinese cooking wine, or Japanese Mirin
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 chopped hot chile
- 1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns (optional)
VEGETABLES
- A 3-inch piece of peeled ginger
- 1/2 medium onion
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1/2 finely chopped habanero chile or 1-2 Thai chiles or 1 serrano
SAUCE
- 5 tablespoons water
- 5 tablespoons tomato sauce or ketchup
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons Chinese cooking wine, or Japanese Mirin
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons corn starch
GARNISH, ETC.
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
- 2 finely chopped green onions or chives
- 2-4 cups peanut or vegetable oil
- 1 cup rice flour, potato flour or regular flour for dredging
- 1/2 cup chopped, pickled chiles (optional)
Instructions
- Prepare the fish. Cut off any spines of each fish with kitchen shears or scissors. Remove the gills of the fish if they are still attached by cutting them out with the kitchen shears. Make vertical slices along each side of the fish evenly spaced along its length, about 1/2 to 1/4 inch apart from each other -- this is very important, because carp have an extra set of bones you need to cut. Doing this shortens the bones and opens them up to the hot oil, which softens them enough to eat. Rinse the fish under cold water and pat dry.
- Marinate the fish. Put the 3 chopped green onions, chile, the 1-inch piece of finely chopped ginger, the Chinese cooking wine, soy sauce and the black pepper into a blender and buzz to combine. Pour the mixture into a glass or plastic container, or a Ziploc bag. Add the Sichuan peppercorns, if using. Place the fish in the container and make sure the marinade surrounds the fish. Let this sit in the fridge for 30 minutes to 3 hours.
- When you are ready to cook the fish, take it out of the fridge to come to room temperature.
- Prepare the vegetables. Julienne the 3-inch piece of ginger. Keep in mind 3 inches is a guideline, so the ginger can be a bit larger or smaller. Cut the ginger into a rectangle, then slice it into thin rectangles about 1/8 inch thick. Then slice these thin rectangles into very thin strips -- as thin as you can make them.
- Slice the 1/2 onion into very thin half-moons. Slice the garlic cloves as thinly as you can along the long side of the clove to make long pieces.
- Pour the oil into a wok and turn the heat on to medium-high. If you do not have a wok, use the largest, deepest skillet you have. A wok really matters here, though, as its shape prevents the tail fin from burning to charcoal.
- Meanwhile, make the sauce. Mix the tomato sauce -- I use pureed tomatoes -- sugar, soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, water and corn starch and stir vigorously to combine. Set it aside.
- Check the oil temperature. You want it to be about 325°F. If you do not have a thermometer (you should buy one!) the oil is ready when a drop of flour tossed into the oil sizzles immediately. Fry the fish. Remove the carp from the marinade and dredge in flour. Shake off excess, and when the oil is at hot, slip the fish one at a time into the oil. You are probably going to have to cook one fish at time. If so, turn the oven on to "warm."
- Fry the fish for at least 5 minutes per side. You want it to be golden brown. I will fry a 1-pound fish for 8 minutes on the first side, 5 minutes on the other side. Larger fish will need more time. When the first fish is done, remove it to a plate and put the plate in the warm oven. Fry the second fish the same way as the first.
- Finish the dish. When the fish are done, ladle out all but about 1/4 cup of oil. Toss in the slivered ginger, the onion, the chiles and the slivered garlic and stir-fry over high heat for 2 minutes. Add the sweet-and-sour sauce and stir well to combine. Bring this to a rapid boil and stir well. Cook for 2 minutes.
- To serve, pour some sauce on a plate, place the fish on top of it and garnish with the finely chopped chives and cilantro. This dish goes best with simple steamed white rice.
Looking for carp recipes bc my fancy goldies always throw a few drab brown fry which, surprise surprise, grow faster and fatter. I need them out of the gene pool, so here’s hoping they taste alright. If not, they’ll be cat food. Thanks for all the technical pointers in this recipe.
I got a 19 pound carp out of Port Washington Wisconsin, Got 3 pounds of meat in brine, Going to try this.
I recently caught a medium sized grass carp and hot smoked it. It was seriously good. It’s crazy to me how bad a reputation this group of fish have. They fight hard, they’re good to eat, and they’re plentiful. We need more carp anglers!
Hank you’re the man! I grew up near Sacramento near you and saw loads of carp thrown into the bushes because they were regarded as trash. Last weekend I was out fishing in a resovoire in Colorado when we paddled up to a bow fisherman shooting carp as they spawned. Knowing how great your recipes have been for small and big game I thought, “I bet Hank has a recipe for carp”… So I asked the angler if he had kept any, to which he replied that he legally has to but didn’t want them….so I inherited two big 5-10lb range carp out of this icy cool water. When I got home I googled, “Hank Shaw carp recipe”, and found this. I pressure washed the scales off, cryo-vac’ed them and froze one. This one we prepared today with your recipe and we’re blown away! My wife is from Japan so she was weary (since she’s reeeeeallly picky about fish), but we all (including our 8yr old son) cleared our plates. I had seconds. This was the best tasting fish I’ve had in years. Thanks for keeping an open mind and finding ways to make everything taste delicious!
You mentioned ‘properly farmed’ carp, would you eat one out of a muddy lake? I was blown away by the amount of carp I saw served in Easten Europe and at their fish mongers. Makes me consider trying it and our local mud hole is FULL of carp. Awesome website!!
Christopher: I would eat one our of a muddy lake… if the water was at least cool. Carp in warm water get very mushy.
A word to Mr Shaw’s readers. . .This is a phenomenal recipe! If you’re even slightly interested by how it sounds, then do yourself a favor and try it out.
I saw this recipe in Shaw’s cookbook and I first tried it with with surf perch I shot spearfishing. I was blown away by how good the sweet and sour sauce is.
Next up was a corbina. Needless to say how awesome that was, too. Even awesomerer. It was like Seinfeld eating that frozen yogurt: “This is so ******* good!” I actually saved several portions of the fry oil to make more sauce for, well, for whatever because it’s so damn good. We were actually eating the sauce by itself by the spoonful. And this is coming from a fairly critical person when it comes to food, with highly discriminating tastes and a penchant for talking trash about how bad all the food is out there.
Thanks, Shaw!
I’ve been fishing for catfish and catching carp for years and have always been told they’re a trash fish and aren’t worth eating, but there are so dang many of them around here that surely there has to be something that we can do aside from throw them back or use them as fertilizer. I’d like to try eating them, but I’m not sure if one recipe will be enough to change my mind, let alone anyone else’s. Do you know any other carp recipes or ways to prepare carp that I could try in order to utilize this high supply-low demand resource?
Grayson: Sure. Fillet big ones and chunk the meat at the top of the fillet, above the extra set of “y” bones. Fry as you would any fish. Or smoke the carp. There are hundreds of carp recipes and thousands of catfish recipes. Catfish are not a trash fish by anyone’s definition. I am surprised to hear you think so.
I caught carp, years ago. Then, and for decades, I considered them worthless – a mere nuisance. “Trash fish,” in other words. Today, however, It is I that has changed. I view them as at least useful, now. I figure a gazillion Asians and Eastern Europeans can’t be wrong. I fly fish and will have my eye out for Ol’ Bugle Mouth. If I manage to catch one, I’ll remember this recipe. Thank you.
David
Leesville, SC
I stumbled on your site. Tried pan searing fresh artic char. It was wonderful. Then some fresh caught grouper and wahoo. Tonite is a beautiful skin on wild salmon withou a single pinbone from Costco. Thank you for teaching me the technique.
It is somewhat similar to the weiner schnitzel I do with wild turkey breast. Awesome, kicked up with a few capers and a wedge of Meyer lemon. Also make several different kinds of WT sausage. My WT tettrazini some say isb”the best meal I ever ate.”
Now venison. I have the best v recipes you can imagine. V steak tartare. Smoked v meatloaf latticed with bacon cooked in a mesh basket. Braided loin grilled in the Masman Argentine manner. Stir fry.
Here is my point. If you are working on another book, I will send you some winners.
I had a guy just last week say “Judge, you be sure and call me when you cook your squirrel and dumplings this fall.” It was 102f !
I am an old man who lives in the woods. Maybe, I can remember to send you some stuff as I cook it. If I had your cell, Icould put you on my list and text you some pix and receipts.
I aint selling nothing. Just appreciate a kindred outdoor cook who shares. Thanks again.
THE JUDGE