Vietnam - Hot and Sour Fish Soup (Cahn Chua Ca)

Hot and Sour Fish Soup 

(Cahn Chua Ca)

Visually beautiful, with red, dark green, and white cut shapes in a tamarind-dark broth; in taste, sour piquant offset by sweet fish and earthy okra--it's a sensational soup: appetite stimulating and totally, totally satisfying at the same time. Serve piping hot to 6 people as a first course or to 2-3 people as a meal.

Ingredients

-       1 cup raw rice slowly boiled with about 2 cups of water for 20-30 minutes (pot tightly covered)

-       1 pound fish fillets or steaks, cut into ¼-inch strips

-       2 green onions, thinly sliced

-       ½ teaspoon black pepper

-       1 Tablespoon fish sauce (nuoc mam or nam pla)

-       6 Tablespoons tamarind concentrate dissolved in 6 Tablespoons hot water

-       5 cups fish stock

-       1 fresh tomato, skinned, (or 3 canned tomatoes that have been seeded), cut into thin wedges

-       2 small red bird chilies, thinly sliced

-       3 Tablespoons fish sauce (nuoc mam or nam pla)

-       1½ cups okra (fresh or frozen, but let the frozen defrost), sliced into rounds

Garnish:

-       1 cup mung bean sprouts;

-       ¼ cup slightly chopped cilantro;

-       2 teaspoons hot pepper oil (which you can make by sautéing ¼ teaspoon dried hot peppers in 2 teaspoons of oil);

-       small lime wedges

Directions

-       Prepare the rice and set aside when done.

-       In a bowl, mix the scallion, black pepper, and 1 Tablespoon of nuoc mam, then toss in the fish strips and let marinate for 15 minutes.

-       In another bowl, stir the tamarind concentrate into the hot water and let sit until ready to use.

-       In a large saucepan, bring the stock to a boil, then stir in the tamarind, the tomato wedges, the sliced chiles, and 3 Tablespoons of nuoc mam. Simmer for 3 minutes, then add the okra and fish.

-       Simmer until the fish is done--about 3 minutes.

-       Remove from heat and stir in the bean sprouts, cilantro, and chile oil.

-       Spoon rice portions equally into the bowls, then ladle the soup over each one and top with the lime wedges.