Alvin Leung aka “Demon Chef”, the acclaimed, wildly creative owner of Bo Innovation Hong Kong, Bo Shanghai and Bo London, is the inventor of “X-Treme Chinese cuisine”. Leung shares his unique recipe for poached black cod

Poached black cod dish by Calvin Ng. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Tell us about your recipe. 

The inspiration comes from the Chinese steamed fish with green onions, ginger and soy sauce. We simply steam the fish, then we make a sauce with soy sauce and sugar. I make the sauce with hoisin sauce and I use fermented white soybeans with fish stock. I make it very simple, so you get the flavour of soy, but you don’t get that very dark colour from the fermentation; it’s lightly fermented so as not to overpower the fish. 

What kind of fish do you use? 

I use wild cod fish. I like the texture, since it’s a fatty fish. It’s very simple to cook it sous-vide – that’s how to get the perfect temperature to get that nice texture and lock in the flavours. 

What’s your inspiration? 

Anything that comes from Hong Kong – so I could be inspired by a landmark or a person. The menu I have right now is called “a Hong Kong story”, using fine ingredients from around the world.

Portrait of Alvin Leung. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Poached black cod in yellow fermented soy sauce (serves 2)

Ingredients 

• 4 black cod fillets (cut to 5cm x 10cm, approximately 4cm thick) 

• 10g Chaozhou seaweed 

• 30g Chinese yellow fermented soybeans (mein see) 

• 15g ginger 

• 500ml fish stock 

• 50g butter 

• 80g monkfish liver (optional) Sweet potato vermicelli (optional)

Slowly sauté the fermented soybeans and ginger in 10g of butter for 2 minutes. Add the fish stock and bring to a boil. 

Remove from heat, add the fish fillets, then cover and poach for 10 minutes. Remove the fillets and keep warm. Reduce the poaching liquid to half. Pour the contents into a blender and liquefy them. Sieve and pour back into the pot, and bring to a boil. Add the seaweed and slowly add the remaining butter to thicken the sauce. 

To serve, place 2 fillets per portion onto the plate. Add sauce, and decorate with monkfish liver and crisped sweet potato vermicelli if desired.