Sichuan Style Spicy Fish & Tofu (豆花鱼)

We love eating spicy food and Rui loves cooking spicy food.

A few weeks ago, we had an opportunity to try out a local restaurant Sichuan Garden in North Austin. It's a bit long drive but it's totally worthy. When we were in Round Rock for car shopping last weekend, we went there again. One dish we really liked is the Sichuan Style Spicy Fish and Tofu (Chinese name: 豆花鱼). So here is Rui's family edition.

Ingredients:

2 pieces of fish fillet (I used longley 龙利鱼)
1 box of silken tofu
3 -5 cloves of galic
1 tsp of grated ginger root
10 - 20 dried red chili (depending on how spicy you want the dish to be)
10 - 20 sichuan pepper (花椒)
1/2 cup oil
1.5 tbsp Roasted peanuts
2 tbsp spicy Sichuan soy bean paste (豆瓣酱)
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1 - 2 leeks

Recipe: 

1. Slice the fish fillet into 1 inch wide and 2-3 inches in length. Mix it with some corn starch (or 生粉/嫩肉粉, if you can buy them from Chinese supermarket), 1 egg white, 1 tbsp cooking wine, and a pinch of salt. Leave it aside for 15 minutes to 30 minutes.
2. Cut tofu into small pieces (2 inches x 3 inches), microwave the tofu pieces in microwave for 2-3 minutes, drained. Put them in a container.
3. grate ginger root, chop garlic, and chop leek to small pieces.
4. Add 1/2 cup cooking oil in a cooking pot and heat it up. Put in Sichuan pepper, garlic, and ginger root you just prepared. When the fragrance comes out, put in soy bean paste and dried red chili. Cook for 1-2 minutes. 
5. Pour in water (or chicken soup if you have some) and cook till it boils. Slowly add the marinated fish and cook till it's done. Pour the fish soup over the tofu pieces. To add some flavor to tofu, you can continue cooking the whole dish (with tofu) for a few more minutes.
6. In a separate pan, roast some chopped peanuts. 
7. Add the roasted peanuts and chopped leeks to the top of the dish.

Done! Now it's time to enjoy your Dish. : )