Braised fish with ginger and galangal (Cá kho gừng riềng)

 

1. Ingredients (1 finished plate)

- Carp (or grass carp): 800g

- Sugar: 100g

- Old galangal: 100g

- Pepper: 2g

- Ginger: 50g

- Fish sauce: 20g

- Pork belly: 100g

- Salt: 5g

- Sugarcane: 1 piece of 20 cm

2. Processing process

2.1. Preparing, cutting.

- Choose fresh fish (preferably alive), thick, fatty and golden. You can replace carp with spinibarbus or large grass carp, scale, remove internal organs, wash and cut into pieces.

- Clean ginger + galangal, half pounded to get the juice, half sliced thinly.

- Choose pork belly (medium thin, fresh), cleanly prepare it, and cut it into pieces as big as your index finger.

- Peel the sugar cane, wash it, and split it into 0.5cm thin slices.

- Melt 1/3 of the sugar to make brown melted sugar (nước hàng).

2.2. Marinate

- Fish: marinate with salt + pepper + fish sauce + half the sugar + ginger juice and galangal juice, leave for 15 minutes to absorb the flavors.

- Pork belly: marinate with fish sauce + pepper + 1/3 amount of brown melted sugar (nước hàng), leave for 15 minutes.

2.3. Process

- Arrange the ingredients and pot in order: sugar cane, fish, meat, ginger, galangal (pour in the spice water used to marinate the fish), put on the stove to boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 3 to 4 hours.

- When it's almost done, add seasoning if it's not just to taste. Boil it until it's just a little watery.

2.4. Present

- Use a deep plate to display. Arrange fish, meat and pieces of ginger and galangal together to make it attractive. You can decorate with flowers made from fresh chili.

3. Finished product requirements

- Condition: Fish and meat are soft but not crushed, with a little viscous juice.

- Color: Glossy brown.

- Taste: Fragrant fish meat and spices, fish no longer smells fishy, has a strong sweet taste.

4. Some points to note:

- When preparing fish, you must clean the scales and remove all internal organs, do not let the gall and intestines break. Use salt or ginger and wine to rub the skin to remove the fishy taste. Before slicing the pork belly, you can blanch it in boiling water before slicing, the pieces of the pork belly will look better. During the cooking process, if the water runs out, use more boiling water. Absolutely do not add cold water as it will make the finished product fishy.