The Most Delicious Fried Fish In The World | Blackbelly Rose Fish | Vietnamese Summer Rolls

Welcome to ‪@cheftuan‬ and today we will be trying some Black Belly Rose Fish. This is THE MOST DELICIOUS fish I have ever had fried! I will be preparing this with simple seasonings and deep frying until golden brown and delicious (G.B.D.)! I will prepare this as part of a Vietnamese summer roll preparation with quite possibly the best tasting dipping sauce in Vietnamese cuisine, Mắm nêm.

I will go in further detail about that sauce and this dish on my blog page https://www.cookingwithcheftuan.com

Recipe for the fish:
1 Rose fish
4 tbsp Shao Xing wine
Kosher salt
Potato starch, enough to coat the fish (use your best judgement for each fish varies in size)

I used Canola oil heated up to 370-375 F to fry. I used enough for my fish to be submerged.


Mam Nem Recipe:
300 g fresh pineapple (this will go into the blender first)
150 g pineapple reserve until the end
1/4 C mam nem sauce
10-12 garlic cloves
1 stalk lemongrass or 4 tbsp of frozen minced lemongrass
1 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp sugar (add more if you like the sauce sweeter)
zest and juice of 1 lime
**Fresh Thai chili, use as much as you like depending on how spicy you like. You can either add to the main sauce or serve on the side individually.
***OPTIONAL*** this is my take, I like adding about 10-12 kaffir lime leaves to my mam nem. It adds a bright citrus note to this sauce.

Steps for the fish:
1. Catch a Black Belly Rose Fish.
2. Scale and clean.
3. Score in a diamond pattern creating 1 inch diamonds.
4. Season with salt.
5. Season with Shao Xing wine.
6. Coat with potato starch.
7. Heat canola oil to 370-375 F and fry for about 7-10 minutes until golden brown and delcious.

Steps for Mam Nem:
1. Combine everything EXCEPT the 150 grams of pineapple into a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Taste and adjust seasoning, if you want more sour, add more lime juice. More funk, add more fish sauce or mam nem.
3. Add the remaining 150 grams of pineapple and blitz until you get the size of chunks you desire.
4. Add fresh chopped chilies.