About this recipe
Fish steaks braised in a dark, bitter-edged caramel with fish sauce, shallot and plenty of black pepper until the sauce reduces to a syrup that clings. The technique — kho, a slow salty-sweet braise — runs through the whole Vietnamese kitchen. The southern version leans on coconut water for roundness.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 4 servings as part of a shared meal
- Prep
- 20 minutes
- Cook
- 35 minutes
- Total
- 55 minutes
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Spice
- Mild–Medium
Allergens Contains fish and fish sauce. Gluten-free if the fish sauce is gluten-free. Dairy-free.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
The caramel
- 1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) water, plus 2 tbsp more for stopping the caramel
The braise
- 1.5 lb (680 g) firm fish steaks — catfish, basa or snapper — cut 1 in (2.5 cm) thick
- 3 tbsp (45 ml) fish sauce
- 3 shallots, thinly sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 cup (240 ml) fresh coconut water (not coconut milk)
- 2 tsp (4 g) coarsely ground black pepper, plus more to finish
- 2 fresh red chillies, left whole or halved
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) neutral oil
- 2 scallions, cut into 2 in (5 cm) lengths
Equipment
- Clay pot (tộ) or a small heavy saucepan
- Small pan for the caramel
- Fish slice or spatula
Method
- Toss the fish steaks with 2 tbsp of the fish sauce and 1 tsp of the black pepper. Set aside 15 minutes.
- Make the caramel: combine the sugar and 2 tbsp water in a small pan over medium heat. Swirl, do not stir, and cook until the syrup turns a deep amber — just past golden, at the point where it smells faintly bitter, 5–7 minutes.
- Stand back and add the remaining 2 tbsp water; it will spit violently. Swirl to combine into a smooth dark syrup and remove from the heat.
- Heat the oil in the clay pot over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic and cook until softened and fragrant, about 2 minutes.
- Lay the fish steaks in a single layer over the aromatics. Pour over the caramel and the remaining 1 tbsp fish sauce.
- Add the coconut water — it should come roughly halfway up the fish — plus the chillies and the remaining pepper. Bring to a gentle simmer.
- Cover and simmer gently 15 minutes, spooning sauce over the fish two or three times. Do not stir; turn the steaks once, carefully, with a fish slice.
- Uncover and simmer 8–12 minutes more, until the sauce has reduced to a glossy syrup that coats the back of a spoon and the fish is opaque and flaking.
- Scatter with scallion and a final grind of black pepper. Rest 5 minutes off the heat before serving.
Uses from this chapter
- (Served with plain rice; no dipping sauce required) (—) — The braise is its own sauce
The Complete Edition
Cá Kho Tộ (Caramel Clay-Pot Fish) sits in the Vietnam chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Vietnam chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.