I read about this soup in the New and Improved Bon Appetit magazine. It’s called Canh, an everyday Vietnamese soup of mostly fish sauce, onion and water. It’s a near-perfect soup base to be paired with a protein entree, or to stand along.
I made it last night and Oh My Gawd it’s amazing. Dark, fishy, packed with umami. And ready in 30 minutes or so.
Make this soup. You can thank me later.
Canh
1 onion, diced
2 T coconut oil
2 T diced ginger
2 T garlic, minced or sliced on a mandolin
1/3 cup good Vietnamese fish sauce (I like Red Boat)
6 cups City stock (ha ha ha, tap water)
3 cups chopped veg like bok choi, mushrooms, thinly sliced carrots
2 cups protein (raw shrimp, cooked ground pork or tofu or whatever)
1/4 cup bias-cut green onion (garnish)
Darkly caramelize one yellow onion in coconut oil. Get it plenty dark.
Set aside six cups of water. When the onion is dark, deglaze the pan with some water. I want to extract every bit of goodness from the onions so cook the onions down au sec or down to a syrup. It’ll only take a few extra minutes.
Add the rest of the water along with fish sauce, a few tablespoons of chopped ginger and a few tablespoons of chopped/minced/sliced-on-a-mandolin garlic and whatever greens you have on hand. I used half-a head of bok choi, some sliced crimini mushrooms, leftover cooked ground pork and some raw shrimp.
Simmer for 20 minutes or until everything is cooked, and serve.
Garnish with chopped green onion.
It was amazing!
It is thin but has a clean, fully fishy flavor. I put it on the table with some crispy shallot and WOW it was amazing. The balance of flavor — with a HUGE fish sauce presence — had a ton of umami.
My sweetie/husband doesn’t eat carbs but I would totally serve this with a scoop of rice.
And the photo above is the same soup, day two with a poached egg and green onion.
It was a game changer on a day that sorely need change.
Be well & much love.
Nancy
Jersey Girl in Potland
