Cá Kho Tộ- Vietnamese Braised Fish in Clay Pot

It’s been awhile since my last post. I blame that on being busy but mostly I haven’t found anything worth an entry. I have been cooking though, regularly. Few days ago I decided to make a Vietnamese braised fish dish that I have never made before after a phone conversation with my sister – Phien.

Phien is my older sister and is closest to me in term of age, most of my other siblings are much older. Phien is in her mid thirties, married and has two kids. She is the type of person that even she doesn’t talk to you everyday and you feel like you already fell out of her life but somehow when you talk to her or see her, she will magically make you feel loved and warm and that you have never had the time apart from her. I’m her favorite or I like to think I am. Personally I think she is one of the most beautiful kids among the five of us. Phien has big brown eyes, thick, long and straight dark hair that she always let it down even when it was one of the hottest summer days. I would never be able to understand nor do like her. She has beautiful and somewhat pointy cheek, fair skin and always skinny, doesn’t matter what she eats which always makes me jealous.

Phien and I are close, especially back in the days. I remember always doing things with Phien around the house, she didn’t like to be outside because she was afraid the sun would make her skin dark and it was just too hot out. During the summer when we had no school and I got to spend time at home, my mother often would make us millions of delicious dishes that I failed to understand why she never ran out of ideas for good food. When we were younger, I was probably 8 or 9 and Phien was around 14 or 15. My mother would make this braised fish in clay pot that Phien loved so much, she would tell me how we could still have something like this to eat one day when mom passed away, I didn’t quite understand what she meant at the time nor worry too much, I guess that’s what 9 years old kids would do, they have a great dish of food in front of them so all that matter is to work on it, why bother. With me the best part was not necessary about the clay pot fish even though it was really good and I always finished mine before Phien, sometimes she gave me some of her portion because I always had big appetite and she ate very little. Anyway, the part I loved most was mom making caramel sauce out of sugar and water. In the old days, especially where we lived in the countryside, treats were something really rare and you could only get them on very special occasions such as New Year or wedding or death anniversary. Before making the dish, my mom would make the caramel sauce herself with sugar and water. She would tell us that she preferred it this way rather than buying the premade caramel from the market, she liked it to be made a certain way, that the caramel has to be just perfect, not too young that it will taste very sugary but not too old that it will be bitter. But I like to think she was making the caramel sauce to give her kids some special extra treats, that’s just how wonderful she is. Phien and I were very excited waiting for mom making the caramel sauce. When it was right, I didn’t know how but mom could tell when it was right, she would take a spoon for each of us. We then would hide somewhere and enjoyed it. We usually had a competition of who would finish first and of course often it was me. That was my favorite part when Phien and I got to enjoy the caramel and I would listen to her talking about how when we grow up and mom won’t be around, how we could make this and she would also come to a conclusion of somewhat it is in our blood that we should be able to figure it out by ourselves. By the time she finished her own thoughts which she usually spoke it out loud, I already finished my caramel spoon and had my eyes on hers.

I live far away from home now, I often will talk to Phien around once a month. Last time I called around her lunch time and even we haven’t spoken for a month, she asked me to call her back because she was in the middle of something. I called her back around an hour later and she told me she was making the clay pot fish. She was on my favorite part of making caramel sauce while she was trying to keep the caramel at the right taste, giving her three years old son a spoon and picking up my call. Apparently my little 3 years old nephew has enjoyed that so much as well, I’m glad we keep that in the family.

Phien encouraged me try to make the dish and I hesitated at first but I decided to give it a try. Here is the recipe for the braised fish with caramel that I made the first time. I saved myself a spoon of caramel sauce before making the fish dish, I wish Phien were here to share that with me. Maybe she was right, perhaps it really is in our blood!

Ca kho to- Vietnamese Braised Fish in clay pot

Ingredients:

Salmon steaks (can be other fish such as catfish, snakefish)

Fish sauce, Brown sugar, Minced garlic, Green scallions

Black Pepper, chili flakes/ whole dried red chili (some prefer fresh thin sliced chili)

Vegetable cooking oil

Preparation:

1. Marinated the fish with ½ table spoon of fish sauce, minced garlic, black pepper and chili flakes
2. Caramel sauce: two table spoon brown sugar, ½ small cup of water. Have a small really hot pan, add sugar and water together, medium heat, stir the mix until seeing all the bubbles. Constantly stir the mixture about 5 -8 minutes, make sure the sauce is condensed, dark brown color, not too burn otherwise it will be bitter.
3. Having a clay pot (or even a pan) really hot with some cooking oil and garlic, stir to make sure the minced garlic turn light brown or when it smells good, add the marinated fish in.
4. Pour the caramel sauce on top of the fish steak, turn to the other side and add some more caramel sauce. Pay attention to the volume of the caramel sauce, you want the sauce to be thick but not too sweat.
5. Add some coconut juice or just pure water, depend on what you have and cook the whole thing down. Pay attention to the caramel in the mixture, you want a thick brown sauce but not too burn. Usually it should be cooked around 10-15mins.
6. Season with fish sauce to your taste, add chili flakes and green scallions toward the end.
7. Serve with steamed rice as a main course.

Happy eating!