Mandarin fish with pine nuts

Method

1. 1 Fillet the fish twice, then make square incisions on the surface of the flesh without cutting through the skin.
2. 2 Roast pine nuts in a dry pan over low heat for 5 minutes, then let them cool until crispy.
3. 3 Roast the pine nuts separately and sprinkle them at the end; roasting them together with the frying oil will make them burn and taste bitter.
4. 4 Coat each incision with cornstarch, then deep-fry at 185 degrees for 5 minutes until the meat pieces puff up.
5. 5 Simmer vinegar with sugar, ketchup, and cornstarch dissolved in water to make a thick sauce.
6. 6 Pour the sauce over the fish, then sprinkle with roasted pine nuts and diced bell peppers.

With an appliance

• Air fryer 45 min

  Replace step 4: spray oil evenly over the flour-coated fish, air fry at 200 degrees for 10 minutes, and flip at the 6th minute to make the fish pieces spread out and crispy. The steps for cooking the sauce and sprinkling pine nuts in steps 5 and 6 remain unchanged.