Hot and sour fish soup
canh chua cá
Canh chua is one of my favourite dinnertime soups, always best when my mother makes it and we enjoy it together with some steamed rice. It's a sweet, sour and hot fish soup. It doesn't take long to cook, which means the vegetables stay whole and crunchy. It always reminds me of my mum's happy face, the sunshine and being in Vietnam, when the whole family sit together on the floor with a spread of dishes to share.
3 tablespoons cooking oil
1 whole sea bass (300 g/10½ oz.), scaled, gutted and cut in half widthways (keep the head, for flavour)
2 Asian shallots, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, quartered
120 g/4 oz. canned pineapple rings, cubed
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 spring onion/scallion, cut into 2-cm/1-inch pieces
freshly squeezed juice of 1 lime
60 g/1 cup beansprouts
1 Bird's Eye chilli, thinly sliced on the diagonal
20-cm/8-inch stick of taro stem/elephant ear (b?c hà), peeled and thinly sliced (optional)
steamed rice or rice vermicelli, to serve
Chilli-fish sauce
1 Bird's Eye chilli
3 tablespoons fish sauce
Garnishes (all chopped)
garden mint
coriander/cilantro, stalk on
sawtooth, Thai sweet basil or rice paddy herb (optional)
Serves 2
This dish is all about preparation. Make sure everything is cut and prepped beforehand because hardly any time is spent cooking.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a frying pan over medium heat and fry the sea bass for 4 minutes on each side. Remove from the pan and set aside.
In the same pan, add 1 tablespoon of the oil and gently fry the shallots and garlic until soft. Set aside.
Bring 600 ml/2½ cups water to the boil in a large saucepan, then add the reserved fish head, tomatoes, pineapple, sugar, fish sauce and seared fish. Bring to the boil again and boil for 2 minutes.
Add the spring onion/scallion, lime juice, remaining oil and the shallots and garlic. Turn off the heat.
Chilli-fish sauce
Drop the whole chilli into a serving dish (large enough to hold the fish pieces) and add the fish sauce. Bruise the chilli with the back of a spoon to release the chilli's flavour and heat. Transfer the fish pieces to this dish.
Put the beansprouts, sliced chilli and taro stem/elephant ear in a large serving bowl. Pour the soup in. Serve with the fish, and steamed rice or rice vermicelli.
Garnishes
Sprinkle the garnishes over the soup and you have a palate-cleansing sweet and sour soup with a dish of poached fish.
Mustard greens and tofu broth
canh c?i b? xanh d?u ph? g?ng
This is a great palate-cleansing soup to be had with an array of dishes at lunch or dinner with family or a few friends. The leaves can be consumed at any time and the refreshing broth can be slurped from your bowl in between rice servings. Sometimes it is great to add ramen to the broth for a midnight snack.
100 g/1 cup cubed fresh tofu
2-cm/1-inch piece of fresh ginger, julienned
1 spring onion/scallion, thinly sliced
1 vegetable stock cube
dash of cooking oil
a pinch of sea salt
a pinch of black pepper
a pinch of sugar
300 g/10½ oz. Chinese mustard greens, chopped
Serves 2 as a main/entrée, and up to 6 as part of a meal of many sharing dishes
Bring 1 litre/4 cups water to the boil in a saucepan. Add the tofu, ginger, spring onion/scallion, stock cube, oil, salt, pepper and sugar.
When you are ready to serve the soup, add the Chinese mustard greens to the pan and bring to the boil again.
Serve hot by itself as a main meal or with an array of other dishes and rice.
Alternatively, you can add spinach, watercress, bok choy or choi sum instead of Chinese mustard greens. It is also absolutely irresistible as a noodle soup base. Just add a portion of dried ramen or fresh udon noodles and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Udon noodle soup with fishcakes
bánh canh cá thác lác thìa là
In Phan Thi?t where my mother comes from, the street vendors sell this as a night meal. It is among one of my favourite noodle soups. In this recipe, the chicken-stock broth is flavoured by the fishcakes and fried shallots. Dill, mint and lime brings it together to make it the most enticing yet cleansing thing to eat when the moon shines. This is a very versatile soup, so the broth can be made from any stock, and you can use fish fillets, seafood such as prawns/shrimp, crab and squid, and meat such as chicken and pork.
Fishcakes with Dill (page 100), uncooked
3 tablespoons cooking oil
2 litres/8 cups chicken, pork or vegetable stock
½ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 teaspoon pork bouillon or 1 chicken stock cube (optional)
2 tablespoons fish sauce
800 g/1¾ lbs. fresh udon noodles
2 tablespoons cooking oil
8 Asian shallots, chopped
Garnishes
storebought deep-fried shallots (optional)
garden mint, chopped
coriander/cilantro, coarsely chopped
garlic chives, cut into 2-cm/1-inch pieces (optional)
dill, finely chopped (optional)
cockscomb mint, torn (optional)
sliced Bird's Eye chillies
lime wedges
Serves 4
Take two-thirds of the uncooked fishcake mixture and shape into a patty. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a frying pan and fry the patty on both sides until golden. Cut it into thin slices.
Pinch off bite-size pieces from the remaining uncooked fishcake mixture and roll into rough balls. Set aside.
Put the stock, pepper, sugar, salt, pork bouillon and fish sauce in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a gentle boil.
Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a frying pan and fry the shallots until brown and crispy.
Bring another pan of water to the boil and blanch the noodles for 2 minutes. Drain and divide them between 4 soup bowls. Add the slices of fried fishcake and a generous pinch of the chopped herbs from the garnishes. Add more pepper, to taste.
When ready to serve, make sure the pan of broth is still boiling, then add the uncooked fish balls. After a couple of minutes when they have floated to the surface, tip in your fried shallots. Ladle the soup into the prepared soup bowls.
Garnishes
Scatter the remaining herbs, the deep-fried shallots and chillies over the soup and serve with the lime.
Duck congee
cháo v?t
Cháo is the transformation of small amounts of rice: after prolonged simmering in broth, it turns into a thick porridge soup. This is a great way to use up leftover cooked rice or when you do not have much rice going, as you can make it go a long way. However, this basic dish can be lifted into something much more luxurious by cooking the cháo with duck as a great treat for visitors. It is then served with slices of duck next to the congee and alongside a ginger-based nu?c ch?m dipping sauce. If you prefer, you can use a whole chicken instead of duck. To make life easier, ask the butcher to joint the duck and poach it in pieces instead of whole. Or use chicken stock instead of water and poach pre-cut chicken or duck breast for 30 minutes in the congee broth.
1.5-kg/3¼-lb. whole duck
1 big tablespoon salt
200 g/1¼ cups basmati rice, rinsed
1 teaspoon sugar
1 thumb's worth of fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 teaspoon pork bouillon (optional)
a pinch of black pepper
Onion pickle
1 red onion, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
Dipping sauce
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 thumb's worth of fresh ginger, finely chopped
2 Bird's Eye chillies, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons fish sauce
Garnishes (all chopped)
garden or hot mint
coriander/cilantro
Thai sweet basil
spring onions/scallions
limes
fresh ginger
Serves 6-8
Bring 2 litres/8 cups water to the boil in a very large saucepan over medium heat. Add the whole duck and the salt and bring back to the boil. Add the rice, sugar, ginger, bouillon and pepper. Cover the pan with the lid and simmer for 75-90 minutes over low heat.
Onion pickle
Combine the ingredients and leave for at least 1 hour.
Dipping sauce
Combine the garlic, ginger, chillies and vinegar and leave for about 5 minutes - the vinegar will slightly "cook" the ingredients. Add the sugar and fish sauce. Divide between individual dipping bowls and leave for at least 1 hour.
Remove the pan from the heat, take the duck out and set it aside to rest and cool slightly. Now joint the duck, slice the flesh and arrange it on a serving dish.
Divide the hot congee between 6-8 soup bowls. Serve with the duck, onion pickle and dipping sauce.
Garnishes
Serve the garnishes with the congee and duck.
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