Yangshuo Beer Fish

We picked this recipe up while holidaying in China. In Yangshuo they make it with Li River fish, which is hard to find in England, but we find it tastes just as good with pretty much any kind of fish.Since the fish is braised in the beer until it has nearly completely simmered away, it picks up all the flavour from the ingredients and tastes absolutely awesome.

This meal is only worth 5.5 Weight Watchers points. Serving with 100g of cooked white rice per person takes the whole meal including a glass of beer to 7.5 Points . The real bonus of the meal is that you drink the leftover lager as a sneaky extra!

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 tbsp Oil (you can use pretty much any oil apart from olive or sesame as these burn at a low temperature) (2.5 points)
• 450g Fillet of Fish (any white fish will do, we often use cod or haddock, definitely best with the skin on) (5.5 points)
• 25g of ginger
• 3 cloves of garlic
• A couple of chillies (more if you like your food spicy, less if you don't)
• 4 tablespoons of soy sauce
• A large bottle of lager (we use Tsing Tao for the authentic Chinese experience), 640 ml (2.5 points)
• 3 tablespoons of oyster sauce
• 1 green pepper and 1 red pepper
• 2 tomatoes
• The green parts of a bunch of spring onions
• A couple more spring onions for garnish

Start by getting all the ingredients ready, slice the ginger into thin matchsticks, finely chop the garlic and slice the chillies.

Slice both peppers into thin strips.

Chop the green parts of the spring onions and slice each tomato into 8 pieces.

Slice the fish into manageable pieces so they'll fit neatly in your pan. If you cut it too small it may start disintegrating in the wok, so we find about 4 pieces for a fillet this size is about perfect.

Now it's time to start stir frying. We use a steel wok which is great as it heats up incredibly quickly and is easy to adjust the temperature while cooking. We picked ours up from the Chinese supermarket for about £7 but any kind of pan would do.

Start by heating the wok over a high flame until it begins to smoke. At this point turn the temperature down a little and add the oil. In Chinese cooking they would normally use 3 or 4 tablespoons of oil and swirl the pan to coat, but since we are using less wipe the oil round to cover the wok using a piece of paper towel.

Add the pieces of fish and sprinkle with the ginger, garlic and chilli. The fish will stick, but don't worry about that, it'll loosen itself as soon as the beer is added. But since it does stick it's best to try not to move the fish because if you do, you'll lose the skin. Then cover the wok for a couple of minutes to let the fish steam the aroma of the ginger, garlic and chlli.

When the fish is just beginning to lose its translucent colour pour over the soy sauce, then add half the beer (saving the other half to drink with your meal) and add the oyster sauce. Gently stir being careful not to move the fish too much or else it may start to fall apart.

Now add all the vegetables and stir to mix. If there isn't enough liquid in there, add a little more beer to just cover most the vegetables. Put the lid back on until it heats to a simmer.

Let it simmer for a few minutes with the lid on to steam the vegetables not covered by the liquid then take the lid off and continue simmering for about 20 minutes until there is only a little sauce left.

Serve garnished with the spring onions.