Celebrity Dipping Sauce Cave Fish

Celebrity Dipping Sauce Cave Fish

　　Situated at the northern edge of the county where Fuxian Lake meets Lichang Village in Chengjiang County, Mingxing is surrounded by numerous fish caves along the lakeshore, shaded by dense trees and providing a cool, tranquil setting—regarded as a natural summer retreat and one of Jiangchuan’s key tourist spots. The residents of Mingxing have taken full advantage of these exceptional natural resources. Through their practice of catching Fuxian Lake anti-wave fish, they’ve honed a distinctive fishing technique and also refined the culinary art of cooking fish in a copper pot served with dipping sauce.

　　1. Cooking the Fish: Bring spring water from the fish cave along with live fish to a boil in a copper pot. Add an appropriate amount of salt and shredded ginger, cover, and cook over a high flame using firewood on a specialized small stove until boiling. Then add an appropriate amount of scallion greens and monosodium glutamate.

　　2. Making the Dipping Sauce: Roast dried chili peppers and pound them into a fine powder, do the same with Sichuan peppercorns. Finely chop scallion whites and ginger, and mash garlic into a paste for later use. First, pour an appropriate amount of rapeseed oil into a wok and heat it thoroughly, then add homemade bean paste, chili powder, and an appropriate amount of salt, stirring them in the wok. Once off the heat, mix in the Sichuan peppercorn powder, monosodium glutamate, finely chopped scallion whites, ginger, and mashed garlic until well blended. Finely chop cilantro and mint separately and serve them in a small bowl for optional use. When serving, mix the dipping sauce with fish broth and pair it with the freshly cooked fish.

　　Travelers who have tasted the copper pot fish cooked with celebrity dipping sauce can’t stop singing its praises. It has become a renowned specialty dish of Jiangchuan County, attracting numerous visitors from both within and outside the county.