Vietnamese
Canh Chua Ca (Vietnamese Sweet and Sour Fish Soup)
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Canh Chua Ca (Vietnamese Sweet and Sour Fish Soup) is Vietnamese home cooking, eaten at lunch and dinner. On the plate it is the dish at the centre and the soup. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.
Ingredients
The quantities follow this count.
How to cook it
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Cut the catfish into 2-inch pieces and season lightly with a pinch of the salt.
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Heat the oil in a pot over medium heat and fry the minced garlic until fragrant and just golden, about 1 minute.
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Pour in the water and bring to a boil over high heat.
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Stir the tamarind paste into the boiling broth until it dissolves, then add the tomato wedges and simmer 3 minutes.
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Add the pineapple and sliced okra and simmer until the okra turns bright green and is just tender, about 4 minutes.
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Slide in the catfish pieces and simmer gently, without stirring hard, until they flake easily and turn opaque, about 6 minutes, skimming any foam from the surface.
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Season with the fish sauce, sugar, and remaining salt, tasting and adjusting until the broth balances sour, sweet, and salty.
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Stir in the bean sprouts and torn fresh herbs in the last minute of cooking, scatter with scallions, and ladle into bowls to serve hot.
Watch how to cook Canh Chua Ca (Vietnamese Sweet and Sour Fish Soup)
Someone making it start to finish, so you can see what the steps look like.
Serve it with
A Vietnamese dinner is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Canh Chua Ca (Vietnamese Sweet and Sour Fish Soup), read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.
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The cooked vegetable
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What it is eaten with
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Something cool and fresh
Safe at your table
Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand, so the absences below are as deliberate as the presences. Canh Chua Ca (Vietnamese Sweet and Sour Fish Soup) carries fish. It is free of the remaining 9 allergens on that list.
| Allergen | In this dish | Cook this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Peanuts | No | |
| Tree nuts | No | |
| Dairy | No | |
| Gluten | No | |
| Shellfish | No | |
| Eggs | No | |
| Soy | No | |
| Fish | Yes | Banh Mi Op La (Baguette with Fried Eggs) |
| Sesame | No | |
| Coconut | No |
These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.
What it brings to the plate
Estimated, per serving
- Calories
- 210 kcal
- Protein
- 19 g
- Carbs
- 12 g
- Fat
- 10 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sugar
- 8 g
- Sodium
- 840 mg
- Saturated fat
- 2 g
Estimated values. Actual nutrition varies with ingredients, brands, and how you cook.
When to cook it
Canh Chua Ca (Vietnamese Sweet and Sour Fish Soup) takes about 35 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a fair bit of work. It is eaten at lunch and dinner. It is at its best in summer, which is when what goes into it is worth buying.
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Cook this with your whole family
Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.
Meal suggestions support your goals. They are not medical advice. Please ask your doctor about your family's health needs.