“Cha Ca Thang Long”-Vietnamese Turmeric Fish With Dill (Mom’s Recipe)

A Family Favorite! Mom’s “Cha Ca Thang Long”-Vietnamese Turmeric Fish With Dill Recipe.

This is one of my mom’s favorite and coveted recipes. This is mostly a Northern Vietnamese dish where small nuggets of moist salmon (or white fish) is marinated in turmeric and pan fried with a generous topping of dill and scallion. You’ll see this in a lot of Vietnamese restaurants where they serve this on a sizzling skillet on your table.

Turmeric gives the fish a beautiful yellow/orange color and it pairs perfectly with the fermented shrimp paste sauce (aka mam tom). This dish is served often times with fresh rice noodles (aka “bun” in Vietnamese) with the shrimp paste sauce or nuoc mam cham.

Personally I like adding a little of the Mam Tom sauce with a generous spoon of nuoc mam cham over my noodles. Nuoc mam cham is a Vietnamese dipping sauce that really enhances the complexity of this simple dish with its subtle notes of fish sauce, citric lime juice, a little sweetness from the sugar and some heat from red thi chili peppers.

For my mom’s Nuoc Mam Cham Recipe, go -here-

INGREDIENTS

1 lb salmon filet (or a firm white fish)
1 tsp tumeric
1 tbs neutral oil (I used tea seed oil, or light EVOO will work)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs fresh galangal (finely chopped, or sub with 1/2 tbs regular ginger)

Mam Tom Sauce:

• 2 tsp fine shrimp paste

• 1 tsp sugar

• 3/4 fresh squeezed lime juice

• 4 garlic cloves minced

• 2 thai red chili peppers (finely chopped)

HERBS

• 2 scallion bunches (sliced into 1” sections)

• 2 1/2 cups of dill tops (remove hard stems, loosely chop), save another 1/4 cup of dill for final garnishing

GARNISH

• Chopped peanuts (optional)

• Fresh dill (reserved)

• Fresh herbs (optional mint and cilantro for garnish)

PREPARATION

1. Clean fish, rinse, and at dry. Then cut into small nuggets about 1x2” or so.

2. Combine turmeric, salt, in large bowl and mix well. Add fish, and marinade the fish nuggets in the fridge for minimum 30 minutes in fridge.

3. Make “mam tom” sauce by combining all the sauce ingredients and mixing well.

4. Boil the vermicelli noodles according to package directions, rinse, drain and set aside.

5. In a large cast iron skillet add about 3-4 tbs of cooking oil and set over medium heat. When the oil is hot and glossy add the fish and pan fry the fish. Make sure to carefully flip all the fish pieces to make sure they are all evenly browned on all sides (about a couple min on both sides).

6. When the fish is just about done, add the scallion onions and the dill and gently mix for a min or two (depending how you like it, I don’t like my dill too cooked through) then remove from heat and transfer to a serving dish.

7. Garnish with crushed peanuts, fresh herbs (optional) and serve with a side of vermicelli noodles, nouc mam cham and mam tom sauce.