Sauerkraut Fish and Candied Banana Fritters That Didn't Quite Work

Made two dishes recently. Neither really worked out — one was sauerkraut fish, the other candied banana fritters.

The sauerkraut fish was just the standard method, except I used a store-bought seasoning packet, and I had my mom do the marinating step.

After marinating, when the fish came out, it smelled really fishy.

So I asked my mom:

“Did you put Shaoxing wine in when you marinated it?” “I did!” “How much?” “…About…a few drops? I didn’t dare put in more…” “…”

So this pot of sauerkraut fish came out a bit fishy. Eating it, the texture felt off, so I just added some water. It wasn’t inedible in the end, at least.

The other one was candied banana fritters:

Made it by the book: cut the bananas into chunks, coat in cornstarch, flour, and egg, deep-fry, then cook down the sugar syrup and pull the strands.

Two problems at home. First, our cornstarch had all clumped up, so stirring the batter was a pain, and the fried pieces ended up a bit big.

Second was my own screw-up. They say when you cook the syrup it first bubbles big, then small, then turns amber.

I got impatient and dropped the bananas in at the small-bubble stage, so naturally I couldn’t pull out many strands…

Taste was still good, though. Next time, if I’m patient enough to cook the syrup a bit longer, it’ll probably be better.