Caramelized fish is a common dish in Vietnamese family meals. Braised fish with bone is a method to ensure that you can eat the whole fish without worrying about bone spurs and also provides additional calcium for the body. The fish for caramelizing should have fragrant flesh, firm and not soft, with tender and chewy bones.
In the past, to braise fish with bone, people often used traditional cooking methods like wood stove and rice hulls. The fish would be buried in ash for 8-12 hours, or even longer, to make the fish fragrant and the bones firm instead of soft and mushy.
Nowadays, families use electric cookers and gas stoves, so caramelizing fish with bone might be more inconvenient, but it doesn’t mean there’s no way to do it.
Applying the following tips and steps will help you make delicious and non-fishy braised fish with bone using an electric cooker.
Braised fish with bone
Handling fish to avoid fishy smell
To make delicious caramelized fish, you need fresh fish with firm flesh. When you go to the market, pay attention to buy fresh and whole fish. If the fish is already cut, check the scales, eyes, touch the fish to see if it’s not slimy, without any strange smell and color. To get rid of the fishy smell, rinse the fish with ginger wine, rub salt on it, and remove the black membranes inside the fish’s belly.
To make the caramelized fish more delicious, you can use the following accompanying spices:
- Fish with soy sauce: the main seasonings are soy sauce, fish sauce, MSG, lemongrass, and galangal
- Fish with pickles: the main seasonings are pickled mustard greens, fish sauce, and vermicelli
- Fish with green bananas: the main seasonings are pickled banana blossoms, fish sauce, pork belly, green bananas, and green tea leaves
- Fish with galangal: the main seasonings are fish sauce, galangal, pork belly, and lemongrass
One of the ways to braise fish without fishy smell and make it delicious is to use tea (fresh green tea or dry tea leaves) and sour fruits such as tamarind….
Use boiling water when caramelizing fish
To make the fish firm and tender, remember to use boiling water and sour lemon juice
The key to caramelizing fish is to remember to use boiling water. After rinsing the fish, pour boiling water over the fish to make it firm quickly and preserve the nutrients in the fish meat. When adding the fish to the pot, use hot water to season it, instead of using cold water.
If you want the fish to be tender and the bones to soften quickly, add a little lemon juice to prevent the fish from being fishy and to make the bones tender due to the acid in the lemon.
If you want the caramelized fish to have a unique aroma and a spicy taste, use green chili instead of red chili.
Put tea leaves at the bottom of the pot to braise the fish, or add a few pieces of sour fruits. This will make the fish non-fishy and the meat very firm.
If you want the fish to have a sweet aroma, add some sliced sugarcane at the bottom of the pot. The aroma of the charred sugarcane will create a delicious fragrance for the braised fish. Especially when caramelizing with soy sauce or galangal, adding fresh sugarcane brings a pleasant aroma.
If you want the fish to be fatty and fragrant, add pork fat at the bottom of the pot to prevent it from burning and add a fragrant sticky substance to the fish.
To make the caramelized fish have a beautiful color, use caramelized sugar: Put sugar in the pot and heat it until you can smell the aroma of molasses without letting the sugar burn, otherwise, it will turn black. To make the color even better, you can add cashew oil or use Korean chili powder.
The process of caramelizing fish using an electric rice cooker
After preparing the fish and the accompanying spices, place a layer of the additional ingredients at the bottom of the pot: pork fat, tea leaves, galangal, tamarind, fresh lime slices, etc. (Depends on the flavor you want, choose the corresponding additional ingredients to put at the bottom of the pot to prevent it from burning and to add flavor to the fish).
Put the rinsed fish and the remaining spices into the pot. Season the fish with hot water, add the remaining seasonings, and then turn on the cooker to bring the water to a boil.
It’s recommended to use hot water to caramelize the fish to make the meat firm and non-fishy. If you’re more careful with fish preparation, pour boiling water over the fish immediately after rinsing to tighten the fish meat and prevent it from breaking.
Bring the pot to a boil, let it boil for about 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to the warm setting. The purpose of this step is to allow the fish to absorb the seasonings thoroughly. Let it sit for about 10 minutes, then turn on the cooker again, set the timer for 30 minutes to let the water evaporate, and then switch the pot to the warm setting. You can occasionally turn on the cooker to bring the heat back up for the fish to continue simmering. Simmer the fish for about 8 hours, then turn off the cooker and let the remaining water evaporate. At that point, the fish bones will be tender and the fish meat will be delicious and fragrant. Caramelizing fish in an electric cooker allows the fish to cook slowly, making the bones tender without the need for constant attention. While the fish is simmering, you can leave the house for 1-2 hours.
If you want to use a gas stove, the process is similar, but you need to pay attention to the flame to avoid burning the pot.
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