Vietnamese Catfish

A few months ago I interviewed Jenny Wong, one of the owners of world renowned Moosewood Restaurant. When I asked her about her favorite Southeast Asian dishes, she mentioned a caramelized Vietnamese catfish.

Like everything else I’ve ever cooked, I was apprehensive about venturing into the world of fish. The prospect of missing a tiny bone that would undoubtably lodge itself in someones airway later terrified me. Tuesday night, I realized that I couldn’t put it off any longer. I was going to bake a fish.

I wasn’t able to find a whole catfish, but of course I was more then happy to resort to fillets that were already cleaned and gutted. From that point on, everything went very smoothly. I was so pleased with the final result. This recipe is not only amazingly delicious, but very affordable. If you have honey and brown sugar on hand, all ingredients can be purchased for less than $10.00. The best part?  Save for some cutting, literally no skill is involved. If you are a seafood person or happen to be feeding fish lovers, this is a must try.

VIETNAMESE BAKED CATFISH

For a 2 Fillets, you’ll need:

MARINADE

2 tblsp fish sauce
1 tblsp brown sugar
1 tblsp honey
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 shallots, finely minced

SCALLION OIL

5-10 scallions, chopped
1 to 2 tblsp oil
A pinch of salt

Chop veggies and mix all marinade ingredients in a bowl. Lather marinade over fillets and place in glass baking dish. Cook for 30-40 minutes. While fish cooks prepare the oil. Heat the oil in a medium sauce pan. Add the green onions as soon as it’s hot. When the onions wilt, remove from heat. Reheat about five minutes before taking the fish out of the oven. Pour the hot oil over the fish and serve immediately.

(*I had originally copied a more in depth recipe here and posted a very clear link  and credit as with my other posts, but the author asked me to remove it regardless. This is a pretty standard recipe you’ll find all over the internet in variations, but here is just a simple yummy version.)

late night laksa

Laksa is noodle dish native to Malaysia, Singapore  and Indonesia. It’s really difficult to explain the flavor, but if you’ve never tried it think sort of rich and coconutty with sweet and sour aftertastes and a gentle spiciness. As a dish, it’s very encompassing of traditional Southeast Asian flavors and techniques.

It took me two hours and my kitchen is a mess, but tonight has been my favorite cooking experience so far. I didn’t want to buy the premade paste even though all of the recipes call for it, so I used a Laksa paste recipe I found and a separate one for the actual dish. I’m falling asleep as I type this, but feeling exited regardless. To be honest, I am developing a little habit of being to lazy to follow recipes exactly, even when I have all of the proper ingredients (which is actually never anyway). I don’t encourage laziness or improvisation when it comes to cooking with things you know nothing about (remember my Pad Thai?), but this time it all worked out well somehow. The sun was finally shining today and even though I knew I had to cook tonight, I didn’t feel like driving across town to the Asian market. By the time that the shop had long closed, I still needed a few key ingredients for the recipe. I decided to wing it. I substituted oyster sauce for shrimp paste and some unused chutney that we had lying around for tamarind paste.

Neither seems to have sabotaged the dish in anyway, but next time I think I’ll still go for the ingredients called for.  Also, after I had already started cooking I realized someone in my house had eaten the shallots I had purchased a few days ago for tonight. I used regular onions instead. The last whoops was that I was supposed to use fresh chilis instead of dried, but of course I didn’t buy them either. I think that’s what caused it to be so yellow.  Ultimately, it turned delicious, which was a small relief and and a giant surprise.

PRAWN LAKSA

PASTE

Ingredients

4 hot red chillies (discarding the stem and as many seeds as you wish to reduce the fire of the paste)
¼ cup fresh coriander leaves, coarsely chopped
4 slices galangal (substitute ginger if you can’t find this fresh)
3 large garlic cloves, peeled
3 stalks lemongrass, minced (use only their tender hearts)
3 eschallots, peeled and chopped
1 tsp shrimp paste
1 tsp sugar
¼ cup tamarind paste
1 tsp turmeric
4 Tbsp vegetable oil
Thumb size pieces of fresh ginger

Method

Put the minced lemon grass hearts, chillies, galangal/ginger, shrimp paste, shallots, garlic, and oil in a blender and puree it into a speckled mush.
Add the coriander, turmeric, sugar, and tamarind paste and blend at the highest speed until it is a colorful but uniform paste.
Scoop into a glass jar (it will stain plastic).
Refrigerate until you’re ready to use.

DISH

Ingredients

50g medium rice noodles , we like Blue Dragon
2-3 tbsp laksa paste
400ml tin half-fat coconut milk
500ml chicken stock
150g cooked large prawns , from a sustainable source
a handful beansprouts
¼ cucumber , seeds removed and cut into strips
a small bunch coriander

Method

Put the noodles in a bowl, pour over boiling water and leave to soften, about 5-7 minutes.
Heat a pan, add the laksa paste and a splash of coconut milk. Fry for 3-4 minutes, add the coconut milk and stock, stir, and simmer for 2 minutes. Add the prawns and heat through. Stir in the beansprouts. Put the noodles in two bowls, ladle soup over, and top with cucumber and coriander.

Lumpia!

As soon as I started learning about Filipino food, I knew I wanted to make Lumpia. Prior to tonight, I’d never really fried or wrapped anything. It was an experience from the beginning. Finding actual lumpia wrappers proved difficult. Online the consensus seemed to be that you could find them anywhere food is sold. Wrong. So wrong. First, I went to Wegmans. After looking around myself for a while, I decided just to ask. The women assured me it’s not a product that they carry. Next stop? The Asian market, where the lady is usually super helpful. This time she told me that lumpia was just what Fillipinos called spring rolls, which isn’t totally true. Lumpia wrappers are much thinner and often corn based. Egg/spring roll wrappers are usually made with wheat flour and fresh rolls are made with a rice wrapper. At this point, I settled and I picked up a pack of wheat flour spring roll wrappers, as well as some rice flour wraps in case. My last stop was Walmart. I had actually read online that you could find lumpia wrappers there. When I asked an employee if they had them, she led me out of the grocery section into to the party suplies. She thought I wanted paper for wrapping gifts. Next time I’ll have to just make my own shells, which will probably be better if not just as good as the prepackaged. The entirety of the cooking process itself, while time consuming, is surprisingly simple. I followed this recipe closely and they turned out really yummy. I’m pretty sure that as long as you don’t burn them, it’s hard to go wrong.

PORK LUMPIA

Ingredients

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 lb lean ground pork
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, sliced
1/2 lb green beans, julienned
2 carrots, julienned
1 tbsp soy sauce (optional)
1 cup bean sprouts (optional)
15 lumpia wrappers, square or round
Salt to taste

Directions

Heat oil in skillet and saute garlic and onions until tender. Add pork and saute until browned. Add vegetables and cook until tender, yet crisp, about 5-10 minutes. Remove from heat. Season with soy sauce. When mixture is cool, add bean sprouts. Salt to taste.

To assemble lumpia: Carefully separate wrappers. To prevent them from drying out, cover unused wrappers with moist paper towel. Lay one wrapper on clean surface. Place about 2-3 tablespoons of the filling near the edge closest to you. Roll edge towards the middle. Fold in both sides and continue rolling. Moisten opposite edge with water to seal. Repeat with other wrappers. Lumpia can be frozen until ready to use.

Deep fry at 350 degrees until golden brown, about 3-5 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels. Serve with sweet sour or vinegar and garlic dipping sauce (recipes below).

Vinegar Dipping Sauce
1/2 cup white vinegar
3 garlic cloves, crushed
Salt and cracked black pepper to taste
Mix together all ingredients.

Makes 1/2 cup

Sweet and Sour Sauce
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
salt to taste
1 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 2 tbsp water
In a small pan combine vinegar, soy sauce, ketchup, water, sugar and salt, and boil for 2 minutes.

Thicken with cornstarch mixture. Makes 1 1/4 cup

(Recipe is from the Food Network, Photographs are mine.)

*Side note from the morning after: Do not store lumpia in the fridge overnight. The meat creates steam which will make the wrapper soggy and inedible as it cools. Fry only what is going to be eaten immediately and freeze the rest to be cooked at a later date. Oops.