sweet & sour fish

good for the “sole”

If you’re a fan of the sweet and sour combo (let’s be real! who isn’t?), then you’ll like this dish. You can use any type of fish, but it seems to work best with a white fleshed fish. My mom always uses cod, and she usually puts a red thai chilli into the sauce too – such a great balance of flavours – but in this post I omitted the chilli because both pie pie and the boss were going to have some. Also, I used sole instead because it was on sale this week. Fish is a great go to for a quick meal because it doesn’t take long to cook and it is super healthy. Alternatively, you could substitute another protein such as tofu, chicken, or pork. sweet and sour fish

prep: 15 min cook: 15 min yield: 4-6

what you need:

1 lb sole (or cod, or any other white fish)
2 ribs of celery
the leafy tops of your celery stalk
1 large carrot
1/2 yellow pepper
2 slices of fresh ginger
1 small cooking onion
2 tbsp naturally brewed soy sauce
3 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp agave (or white sugar)
1 tbsp water (if needed)
salt & pepper
3/4 cup flour
cooking oil (I like to use grapeseed oil)

what to do:

Prepare all your veggies by washing thoroughly, peeling carrot, ginger, onion, and then cutting everything into about the same matchstick sizes (julienne). Roughly chop leafy celery tops. Combine soy sauce, vinegar, & agave in a small bowl. Set aside.
Pat fish dry with paper towel, then season both sides with salt & pepper.
Put flour in a shallow dish. Coat each piece of fish with flour, and shake off any excess.
Put about 1 tsp oil in a non-stick frying pan on medium heat. Once oil heats up, pan fry fish a few pieces at a time until both sides are lightly browned – don’t over crowd your pan or else the fish won’t crisp up or get lightly browned. Sole is very thin so it only took 1 min per side or so.
Remove fish from heat and place on a wire rack if possible. You can keep it warm in a 200 F oven while you fry up the rest of your fish – adding oil as needed to your pan as you finish frying all the pieces.
Now that your fish is done, it’s time to sauté up the veggies. Still on medium heat with the same pan (and adding 1 tsp oil if needed), sauté ginger and onions first. Once onions soften slightly, add carrots, celery (not the leafy tops) and peppers. Stir occasionally, until everything is slightly softened but not soggy (you want your veggies to have a little bite left to them!).
Pour soy, vinegar and agave into the pan and stir to mix in with veggies, and turn down the heat to medium low. Add water if you feel like the pan seems dry. Once the sauce reduces just a little, turn off your heat.
Remove fish from oven and place pieces onto a large serving dish. Pour veggies & sauce all over top of fish, then garnish the entire dish with chopped leafy celery tops. Serve immediately (over rice is delicious). Enjoy!