Cha Ca La Vong

Ingredients

Fish and marinade

• 1 kgfirm white fish fillet, cut into 4 cm pieces
• 3 tbspfresh galangal, grated
• 2 tbspfresh turmeric, grated, or 1 tbsp ground
• 3 tbspmẻ, fermented rice, or 2 tbsp plain yoghurt with 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 tbspfish sauce
• 1 tbspshrimp paste
• 1 tspsugar
• 2 tbspoil

To fry at the table

• 100 mloil or lard
• 3large bunches dill, cut into 6 cm lengths
• 6spring onions, cut into 6 cm lengths

To serve

• 500 gbún rice vermicelli
• 100 groasted peanuts
• coriander
• mắm tôm mixed with lime, sugar and chilli
• fish sauce dip

Directions

1. Mix the galangal, turmeric, mẻ, fish sauce, shrimp paste, sugar and oil into a marinade and turn the fish through it until every piece is coated.
2. Marinate for at least 3 hours, and overnight if you can manage it. Turmeric needs the time to colour the flesh right through rather than just staining the outside.
3. Grill the marinated fish over charcoal, or under a very hot grill, for 8 to 10 minutes, turning once, until just cooked and lightly charred at the edges.
4. Do not skip this first grilling. It is the step most home versions leave out and it is where all the smokiness in the finished dish comes from.
5. Cook the vermicelli, rinse it under cold water and drain it thoroughly.
6. Heat the oil in a shallow pan set over a portable burner at the table.
7. Add the grilled fish and let it sizzle, then pile the dill and spring onion on top in enormous quantity.
8. It should look like far too much dill. It wilts down to almost nothing, and it is the second main ingredient of the dish rather than a herb garnish.
9. Turn everything over gently in the hot fat for 2 to 3 minutes, until the dill has just collapsed and turned bright green.
10. Serve straight from the pan, so that each person lifts fish and dill onto vermicelli in their own bowl.
11. Add peanuts, coriander and a spoonful of the mắm tôm dip, which is pungent and is what a Hanoi diner would reach for.
12. Keep the pan going and cook in batches as people eat, which is the entire point of the format.

Technique

• Grill first, then fry with the dill. Two cookings, and the first one is the one that gets dropped.
• The Doàn family have served it in Hanoi since the late nineteenth century, on a street that was eventually renamed Chả Cá after the dish.
• Mắm tôm divides people sharply. Put it on the table alongside a plain fish sauce dip and let everyone choose.

Substitutions

• Yoghurt with a splash of rice vinegar in place of mẻ.
• Monkfish or catfish, both of which hold together well over two cookings.
• Ground turmeric if fresh is unavailable, at about half the quantity.

Variations

• With a larger proportion of spring onion and less dill, which is more common in the south.
• Served over rice rather than vermicelli.
• With the fish fried in a single pan in the kitchen, which loses the theatre but works.

History

Served since the late nineteenth century by the Doan family on a Hanoi street later renamed Cha Ca after the dish itself.

Frequently asked questions

What is Cha Ca La Vong?

Cha Ca La Vong is a main from Vietnam: turmeric fish fried at the table with mountains of dill and spring onion. Served since the late nineteenth century by the Doan family on a Hanoi street later renamed Cha Ca after the dish itself.

How long does Cha Ca La Vong take to make?

Cha Ca La Vong takes 30 min plus 3 hr marinating of preparation and 25 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Cha Ca La Vong?

Yes, within limits. Yoghurt with a splash of rice vinegar in place of mẻ. Monkfish or catfish, both of which hold together well over two cookings. Ground turmeric if fresh is unavailable, at about half the quantity.

What is the most important thing to get right in Cha Ca La Vong?

Marinate for at least 3 hours, and overnight if you can manage it. Turmeric needs the time to colour the flesh right through rather than just staining the outside.