Today I’m going to share my delicious seasoned flatfish recipe using fluke. It’s crispy fried fish coated in a delicious, sweet, salty, garlicky sauce. I use fluke in my recipe, but you could use any type of flatfish. And I cleaned mine but you can ask your fishmonger to clean it for you, and even cut it into pieces for you.
I shot this video on a recent trip to Montauk, Long Island. The fluke was so fresh, this dish was incredibly juicy with a soft, pliant texture! While editing the video I had a serious craving to make this again. I considered running to Chinatown to find a good fluke, but finished editing the video instead. : )
I know some people will be a little uncomfortable with the idea of cooking with so many fish bones in, but that’s the way Koreans enjoy it. I can’t imagine making this dish with fish filets. As Koreans say, it would be like a helicopter without a propeller. Something critical is missing!
Enjoy the recipe, and if you make it, let me know how it turns out!
Ingredients
- 1 whole fresh fluke (or flounder, or any flatfish) about 2½ pounds, scaled with guts removed
- ½ cup potato starch (or corn starch)
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
For the seasoning sauce:
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 green onions, chopped
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup rice syrup (or sugar, or honey)
- ½ teaspoon Korean hot pepper flakes (gochu-garu)
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
Directions
Prepare the fish
- Cut the fish into several pieces crosswise. Wash and drain and put them in a bowl. Sprinkle each piece evenly with the salt and refrigerate for at least for 30 minutes, or overnight.
- Coat each piece with the potato starch powder.
Cook the fish
- Heat up a large pan and add a generous amount of cooking oil.
- Put the fish in the pan and lower the heat to medium. Let cook for 5 to 7 minutes until the bottoms get crunchy and light golden brown. Then flip them over.
- Turn down the heat to low. Cover and let cook for about 10 minutes. You’ll see the sides of the fish pieces look opaque, which means they’re cooked thoroughly.
- Flip over the fish once more. Turn the heat up to medium high to make the fish nice and crunchy and golden brown. Take the fish off the pan and turn off the heat.
Make seasoning sauce and coat the fish
- Heat up a large skillet with 2 tablespoons vegetable oil. Stir-fry the garlic for a minute until it’s light golden brown and crispy. Lower the heat to medium.
- Add soy sauce, ¼ cup water, rice syrup, and hot pepper flakes. Keep stirring until the sauce is bubbling.
- Add green onion, stirring for 30 seconds before turning off the heat.
- Add the sesame oil and stir.
- Take a piece of the cooked fish and dip in the sauce to coat. Transfer it to a serving plate. Repeat it with the rest of the pieces.
Serve
- Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve as a side dish for rice. Leftovers can keep in the fridge up to a week, eat them cold or reheat in the microwave or on the stove with a few drops of water.
Maangchi's Amazon picks for this recipe
It's always best to buy Korean items at your local Korean grocery store, but I know that's not always possible so I chose these products on Amazon that are good quality. See more about how these items were chosen.
Maangchi! I have a question for you. Where do you shop for fish in Montauk? I go often with family and am interested to know where you go! Thanks, and happy lunar new year! Lola
Hi Lola,
There is only one fish market there as far as I know. It’s Gosman’s retail fish market.
Now one of our favorite fresh catch recipes. Nothing is better than pan fried fish and sauce really adds something to it.
Hello Maangchi,
Here in Ecuador, in the Andes region, Tilapia is a very popular and tasty fish, and I always have some stored in the freezer. Today I had two Tilapias unfrozen, and prepared them yangnyeom-twigim-style. They turned out so tasty, had a mouthwatering sunday lunch. Guess, you can use the yangnyeom-twigim sauce on any kind of fish.
Hello Maangchi,
I made Gajami yangnyeom-twigim for lunch yesterday. Only couldn´t get flatfish in town, so I got a pound of frozen seabream fillets at the supermarket. But anyway, it´s the sauce that makes it! The fish got so crunchy and tasty! Gonna enjoy a leftover for lunch today. Deliciousss!
Made some Sangchu-geotjeori as a side dish. Just prepared a double portion of the dressing, and keep it in an empty salad dressing bottle in the fridge. Added one teaspoon of minced ginger to the recipe, though: made it perfect.
See full size image
Wow both sidedishes look mouthwatering!
Thank you for the compliment! Thanks to your excellent webside with your mouthwatering recipes! And the videos are a great help, make Korean cooking sooo easy!
Is it okay to remove the fish skin? I’m not a fan of fish skin.
Hello Maangchi!!
I’m a great fan of the show!
This new dish looks delicious.
That is way i’m making it tonight! I’m using slip sole.
Keep up the good work!
Greetings from Holland
Maangchi ssi,
That fish fry looks so tasty that my dog is trying to eat it off the screen of my iPhone. I got galchi already salted in my freezer that I just got this morning. Will try this recipe with those galchi and post it on my instagram and tag you.
My son is such a picky eater but I got the feeling he’ll like this recipe.
Kamsahamnida Maangchi-ssi
Ima