Ca Kho Tho
When people wonder what they’re going to have for dinner, I never in 1000 years would have imagined that they would see Vietnamese food as an option. Growing up as a first generation Vietnamese kid, if it didn’t stink, it wasn’t good. I remember begging my dad to take me to our favorite Southern Vietnamese restaurant and having him call ahead to make my favorite dish: Ca Kho Tho. It’s not expensive by any means, and it’s actually catfish: which a lot might consider as “dirty” but I consider it delicious. The carp is fatty, and has a soft skin that carmelizes very well with this clay pot style cooking!
refrigerated
1 lb of cat fish (have the butcher cut it into fillets for you!)
5-7 cloves of garlic *minced
½ an onion (yellow or white is fine)
baking and spices
2 teaspoons of fish sauce
4 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of fresh ground black pepper
1/2 thai chilis
1 green onion
liquids and oils
½ cup of water
1 cup of coconut water or soda
2 tablespoons of oil of choice
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
I used this skillet from Amazon to create this dish:
If you grew up eating Vietnamese food, you must hold this dish close to your heart! It’s salty, fishy, and amazing with rice. This is a fool proof way to get the flavor and texture of this Ca Kho Tho!
Directions:
Mince your 5-7 cloves of garlic, cut ½ and onion, add 2 teaspoons of fish sauce, 4 tablespoons of soy sauce, ½ cup of water, 1 cup of coconut water or soda, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, 1 tablespoon of sesame oil and add to a mixing bowl and stir.
Add your fillets to the bowls and massage mixture
Let it rest and marinade for 20 minutes outside of the fridge
(You can cook your rice while this is marinating)
Grab a large skillet and coat with your oil of choice (do not preheat)
Add your fish with marinade included onto the pan
Turn your stove on medium heat
Once the sauce around the fish begins to boil a little (about 7 minutes) flip your fish
Raise the heat to high and cover and cook for 7 minutes
Flip your fish one more time and turn off heat
Garnish with cut thai chili, green onions and a lot of freshly grounded black pepper!
Serve over rice
I served it with some sauteed on choy, and canh chua ca!
Bringing it to temperature instead of preheating helps it penetrate
The simmering while covered allows the cat fish to become tender
Flipping allows for even coating on both sides
The marinating allows for full flavor penetration without a clay pot
Doing it outside of a fridge allows the fish to soak it in more
