Fish stew is a familiar rustic dish in family meals, especially in winter. However, making a delicious fish stew is not easy: the fishy smell, the consistency of the stew, the color of the dish are things you need to be careful of.
Fish fillets: still firm, the meat is not mushy or broken.
The preferred color of fish stew is usually a shiny brown color like honey, or slightly darker.
The taste will be dominated by a strong aromatic smell of spices such as garlic, chili, shallots, scallions, and ginger to get rid of the fishy smell of the fish.
Southern taste will prefer a sweeter and spicier flavor like snakehead fish stew with Vietnamese coriander. The soft and fatty fish meat goes well with the spicy taste of chili, pepper, and Vietnamese coriander.
Central taste tends to be spicy, saltier and distinctive with turmeric. Turmeric powder, turmeric leaves, fresh turmeric with fish, corn or mint.
Discover these 4 secrets to making delicious fish stew below!
1. To make delicious fish stew, the fish must be fresh and properly prepared
Whether you use river fish or sea fish, freshness is always the top priority. Fresh fish is still firm, its parts are not torn apart, and it has no unpleasant odor.
Removing the fishy smell is very important, if not properly prepared, the stew will still have a fishy smell, affecting the taste of the dish.
Remove the fishy smell with the following steps:
Clean the fish scales, pay attention to the tail edge and the fish head where the scales are tightly attached.
Remove all fish organs, fins, gills, blood veins. Clean the fish with water until the water is clear.
Scrape off the fish mucus: Rub the fish skin with salt, lime juice, and white wine, then flip the blunt side of the knife to scrape off the mucus on the skin. Repeat until the fish skin is free of mucus.
2. Marinate the fish before cooking
Marinating the fish is essential, it helps the fish firm, not mushy, and absorbs the flavor.
The minimum marinating time is 30 minutes. The marinating spices include salt, sugar, fish sauce, pepper, strong spices like onions, garlic, minced chili.
For sea fish, if you want the fish to be firm, you should blanch or broil it before marinating.
3. The stew must be delicious to make the fish stew delicious
Caramelize the sugar in oil or water until it turns a golden color.
Add fresh coconut water or filtered water, aromatic and spicy ingredients like garlic, purple onions, chili.
Boil the stew for a few minutes to extract the fragrance of garlic and the spicy taste of chili. Don’t forget to add spices, especially sugar, using brown sugar or palm sugar will make the stew sweet and flavorful.
4. Cooking with one or multiple fires
For those who like dried and firm fish, you can stew with two or more fires.
For Southern-style fish stew, only one fire is needed. Slowly cook the stew so that the spices have enough time to infuse into the fish, the stew should be just enough to cover the surface of the fish, not covering the pot or leaving the pot open. Cook until the stew thickens, the fish stew will be extremely delicious when dipped with boiled vegetables.
A tip from people in the North when stewing fish is to layer thinly sliced galangal under the pot, then arrange the fish on top. Galangal removes the fishy smell and helps the fish not become mushy during long cooking.
Wish you succeed in making delicious fish stew with these above secrets!
According to Law and Readers
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