He then took the catfish out of the tank, first letting it bleed, then removing the innards.
After cleaning it thoroughly, he sprinkled a handful of salt on the catfish, then vigorously rubbed the surface to wash off the mucus.
The fishy smell of catfish mainly comes from the mucus on its body surface, which can be cleaned off with salt, just like washing pork large intestine.
Apart from salt, white vinegar, flour, and starch are also effective against the mucus.
If the catfish is going to be deep-fried, you can blanch it in hot water to thoroughly remove the surface mucus, which improves the texture of the fish skin when fried.
But if you're not going to fry it, it's not recommended to blanch, as that could destroy the tenderness of the fish skin.
Clean the fish, place it on a cutting board, and chop the fish into sections with a kitchen knife, putting them into a bowl. Add salt, light soy sauce, rice wine, scallion, ginger slices, and a small spoon of white sugar.
