If you could only have one last dish before dying, what would it be?
A recent episode of Top Chef got me thinking: What would my last supper be? What is the one dish that I would want to experience once more as my last act of existence? Or, what is the best dish you've ever had in your life that you couldn't live without?
Either way, for me it is the soup below the fold.
There is a Vietnamese restaurant in Moline, Illinois called Le Mekong. Unfortunately, they do not have a website or I'd hope you folks would crash it with traffic. It is a very friendly, very authentic French Vietnamese restaurant. If you should happen to stumble upon other Vietnamese restaurants in Moline, DON'T GO THERE! Trust me. Have I done y'all wrong yet?
The best dish I have ever eaten in my entire life and the dish I would choose as My Last Supper is Le Mekong's Canh Chua. I tried to call them this evening to get the exact name of the dish, but I have only memories to work from.
When I first ate this dish it was with my mother and step-father. They were food and wine people long before I was, and I may owe some of my foodiness to them. They certainly find some great restaurants. I even dated a waitress from this ... oh, nevermind.
Canh Chua is a hot and sour catfish soup. If you look at the wikipedia entry (and I don't advise that so I didn't provide a link), you'll find that there are endless versions with various names. My recipe uses shrimp and codfish. I used the google translator to come up with the best name for my dish:
Canh Chua Cá Tôm
As I have done before, I'll blockquote a recipe, then I'll elaborate on the steps and options below. Understand that this is by no means any sort of authentic recipe. It is my best attempt at duplicating what I want someone else to make me! Still, I have made it a couple of times, and it is very close.
Vietnamese Hot and Sour Fish Soup w/ Shrimp (Canh Chua Cá Tôm)
Ingredients:
Tamarind Broth:
1/4 cup tamarind pulp
1 cup warm water
2 quarts/liters water
1 medium onion
4 ribs celery
2 small, dried chili peppers
1 large bay leaf
2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
Canh Chua Cá Tôm:
2 quarts Tamarind Broth
1 lb whole shrimp
1 lb white fish
2 ribs celery, roughly chopped
1/2 medium pineapple, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 chili pepper
4 green onions
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup bean sprouts
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
Instructions:
Make the Tamarind Broth
1. Submerge the tamarind pulp in the warm water and let sit until soft. Crush the tamarind with the back of a spoon until mixture is thick and tastes of citrus juice (ie, sour). Set aside.
2. Bring 2 quarts of water to a simmer in a 6-quart stock pot. You will need the space. Add onion and celery. The water should easily cover the vegetables. Add dried chili peppers, and bay leaf. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or so.
3. Season the broth with sea salt and crushed black peppercorn. Then, add the tomatoes. Simmer for 10 minutes more.
4. Strain the tamarind liquid into the broth, removing most pulp. Simmer a few more minutes to allow flavors to combine.
Prepare the Seafood
1. Remove the skins and tails from the shrimp, leaving the heads if you have them. Save the skins and tails for the next step.
2. Clean the fish as necessary. Cut into 2-inch cubes.
Prepare the Vegetables
1. Chop celery into chunks about half the size of the pineapple cubes. Dice a hot chili pepper.
2. Cut the green onions on a bias in thin slices. Mince the garlic. Wash the bean sprouts thoroughly.
Make the Soup
1. Bring the tamarind broth to a simmer and add the shrimp skins and tails. After 10 minutes at most, remove the shrimp bits using a spider or strainer.
2. Add the celery, pineapple, and chili pepper. Simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.
3. Add the sugar and fish sauce. Simmer, uncovered, for another 15 minutes.
4. Add the green onions, garlic, and bean sprouts. Simmer, uncovered, about 5 minutes.
5. Add the shrimp and fish and cook until perfectly pink and opaque. DO NOT OVERCOOK.
6. Remove from heat and serve immediately.
That's a long recipe, right? Well, really, we can break it down easily.
To get the full canh chua experience you need tamarind and heat. We get the sour from the tamarind and the heat from chili peppers introduced both in the broth and in the soup itself. Adjust the sourness by the amount of tamarind or citrus and adjust the heat by your choice of chili peppers. I have seen many hot and sour soup recipes that call for tamarind paste or even lime juice instead of the dried product. Really, it is both cheaper and tastier to use the dried blocks. Find a local middle eastern market and ask them how they prepare their tamarind. I dare you!
That said, this is just a vegetable soup with seafood. Use whatever stock you want, use whatever vegetables you want, and use whatever seafood you want. There are plenty of restaurants that serve pork, beef, and chicken hot and sour soups as well. Feel free to experiment. I'll try to give my take on the essentials next.
Broth is the Base
It is one of my top lessons to any aspiring cook (not that I'm in any qualified to offer such advise) is make your own stocks. Save every scrap of vegetable that you would normally throw away. Put those bits in hot water and 20 minutes later, you have broth. Can you boil water? Then you can make your own broth.
The key ingredient in this soup is the sour element of the broth. Dried tamarind soaked in warm water for about half an hour will make the water taste like lime juice. Add the liquid and even some of the softest pulp to the broth and you have the base for your canh chua.
Never miss an opportunity to add flavor. You are peeling shrimp; why not add the skins and tails to the broth and make it that much more delicious! Of course, you'll have to strain them out before adding the edible ingredients.
Don't Overcook!
Building a soup or really any dish is about treating every ingredient perfectly. That is, every single element of a dish should be properly cooked. With soups, you rarely have to worry about under-cooking. Therefore, worry much about OVER-cooking.
The order in which you add the ingredients is critical. Start with the harder vegetables - celery and pineapple in this version - but also taro, okra, carrots, or any other root vegetables should go in first. My recipe specifies 15 minutes covered for these, but they may take longer. Just don't overcook. Heard that enough yet?
After the harder vegetables have cooked, you want to add some herbs. Green onion, garlic, ginger, cilantro (beware your audience... lol), or other leafy, fresh herbs can go in before the seafood.
The seafood is the most delicate of your ingredients. Make sure everything else is nearly ready before adding the seafood. You can stuff the pot with chunks of fish and shrimp and it will still cook in about 5 minutes if you stir it occasionally. Don't over--- okay, you get it by now, right?
Serve Immediately
I think practically about my dishes, because I serve family style or buffet style. Therefore, I am used to making dishes (such as my ribs) that can rest for some time. Resting soup is a terrible idea. Resting seafood in hot liquid is disastrous.
Serve immediately!
Enjoy!