Dragon Phoenix Leg
Dragon Phoenix Leg
My mother asked me yesterday “What are you going to cook for your blog this time?” I answered her “Dragon Phoenix Leg”. She immediately told me with a surprised voice “Ohh….That’s a great snack that I ate from childhood.
Dragon phoenix leg is a very important and unforgettable night market food for a lot of Taiwanese people. It originates from those small fishing village around north coast of Taiwan. A long time ago, Taiwan was a very poor country but while one chicken only has two legs most families had more than two children, it’s never enough for children to eat. So, parents used a little bit of fish and pork with some vegetable to make this dragon phoenix leg snack for children. This dish looks a bit like a drumstick and so we entitled it Dragon Phoenix Leg.
The other story about dragon phoenix leg is back in the old times when Taiwanese parents tried to make their children eat carrot and cabbage they would entice them with chicken by making this dish.
No matter what’s the real story for this dragon phoenix leg. We can find out this dish is full of the love from parents who make or created this dish.
I changed the recipe a little so there’s no cabbage as Chris absolutely loathes cabbage so I used spring green in the filling. Spring green is also a kind of cabbage but tastes lest cabbage than normal cabbage of course.
These photos were taken by Chris at Chris Radley Photography
Dragon Phoenix Leg
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 220 g cod fillet or any kind of white meat fish
- 25 g potato starch or corn flour
- 70 g ice water
- 1 tsp ginger chop finely
- 60 g spring onion chop finely
- 150 g pork belly mince it
- 150 g pork loin mince it
- 1/2 tsp garlic chop finely
- 100 g carrots grate
- 60 g spring greens shred finely
- 1/2 onion chop finely
- Some flour
- Some pig's caul
Seasonings
- 1.5 tbsp caster sugar
- 1/4 tsp white pepper powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/4 tsp Chinese five spice powder
Seasonings for Vegetables
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
Instructions
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Cut the cod fillet into small dices and use a food processor to process the fish until you can’t see any lumps in the fish.
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Add ice water, caster sugar and potato starch to a small bowl and mix them evenly with no lump. Mix it with fish from step 1.
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Wash your hands first and start to throw the fish mixture into a bowl around 20-30 times until the fish mixture gains some viscidity.
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Marinade vegetable with seasonings for vegetable for 30 minutes. After, use your hand to squeeze the water out of vegetable.
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Mix all the ingredients and seasonings together evenly.
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Use pig’s caul to wrap the mixture and place on a stick. Make the shape look like a drum stick.
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Coat the dragon phoenix leg with flour. Heat up 3 cups of oil with full gas power to deep fry it. Once you put 2 or 3 dragon phoenix legs into the oil turn off the gas immediately. Turn the gas back on to lowest temperature after 1 minute. (This ensures the inside of this dish is cooked but the outside remains a pretty colour.) Keep deep frying it at the lowest gas power for 3~5 minutes until it is cooked from inside to out.
