Cha ca

Name: Cha ca
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 35 min
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Ingredients: 3 tsp chopped fresh ginger; 3 red Asian shallots, chopped; 4 garlic cloves, chopped; 2¾ tsp ground turmeric; 60 ml (2 fl oz/¼ cup) fish sauce; 750 g (1 lb 11 oz) skinless blue eye cod or other firm white-fleshed fish fillets, cut into 4 cm (1½ in) pieces; 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper; 375 g (13 oz) dried thin rice-stick noodles; 90 g (3 oz/½ cup) rice flour; 1 tsp salt; 80 ml (2½ fl oz/⅓ cup) vegetable oil, plus extra if necessary; 8 spring onions (scallions), trimmed and cut into 4 cm (1½ in) pieces plus extra, finely sliced, to garnish; 1 onion, halved and sliced; 2 bunches of dill, coarsely torn; 160 g (5½ oz/1 cup) roasted unsalted peanuts, coarsely chopped; 80 ml (2½ fl oz/⅓ cup) mam nem (Vietnamese fermented shrimp sauce); 3 garlic cloves, crushed; 1 tbsp caster (superfine) sugar; 1 lemongrass stem, white part only, finely chopped; 2 tbsp fish sauce; 2 tbsp lime juice; 2 medium red chillies, finely chopped; 95 g (3¼ oz/½ cup) very finely chopped fresh pineapple flesh

Instructions

Prep:20minCook:15min

It’s every Hanoi first-timer’s rite of passage – a dinner at the gorgeous, rickety Cha Ca La Vong in the Old Quarter. Their raison d’etre is to serve just one dish – cha ca . Pieces of local Red River fish (carp or catfish) are marinated with turmeric then fried at the table with heaps of dill and spring onion and served over rice noodles with peanuts and a dipping sauce (mam tom tong).

Updated at: Thu, 14 Mar 2024 08:21:30 GMT