Vietnamese Turmeric Dill Fish With Rice Noodles Recipes

Steps:

• Mix the turmeric with the ginger, sugar and fish sauce in a shallow dish to make a quick marinade. Toss the fish in the marinade and set aside for 5 to 10 minutes while you prepare the noodles.
• Soak the noodles in boiling water for 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, heat the oil in a wok or frying pan and fry the fish over a high heat for 3 to 4 minutes until just cooked. Turn the fish carefully so it doesn't break. Remove from the heat and add the chile, herbs and spring onions and lightly toss together.
• Drain the noodles and divide between four bowls. Add the chile-herb fish pieces, scatter with the peanuts and serve.

Steps:

• Rinse the catfish fillets and pat dry with paper towels. Cut each fillet into index finger-sized pieces about 3 inches long and 3/4 inch thick. (To arrive at pieces that are long enough, you may need to angle the knife so that you cut on the diagonal.)
• To make the marinade, in a shallow bowl large enough to accommodate the catfish, combine the sour cream, turmeric, galangal juice, and shrimp sauce and mix well. Add the catfish and use a rubber spatula to coat the fish evenly. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or up to overnight.
• Thirty minutes before broiling, remove the catfish from the refrigerator. To prepare the accompaniments, arrange the noodles on 2 plates in 2-inch mounds for easy serving. Place the noodles, vegetable garnish plate, peanuts, dipping sauce, and rice crackers on the table.
• Position a rack about 3 inches from the heat source and preheat the broiler for 20 minutes to get it nice and hot. Arrange the catfish pieces on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet, spreading them out flat like a jigsaw puzzle. Broil for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the fish is sizzling and a little brown. Remove from the broiler, make a spout in one corner of the foil, and pour off the accumulated liquid. Use chopsticks or a spatula to flip the fish pieces over. Broil for another 5 to 8 minutes, or until browned on the second side. Transfer to a serving plate.
• To garnish the fish, blanket it with the dill and scallions. Then, in a small saucepan, heat the oil until faint wisps of smoke start rising. Pour the hot oil over the scallion and dill to wilt them. Use 2 spoons to mix the fish and garnishes and then place on the table.
• To eat this dish, each diner combines all the various ingredients in a small bowl (such as a rice bowl), tearing the lettuce and herbs into pieces and breaking up the rice cracker. He or she then drizzles a little sauce on top, mixes the contents of the bowl, and eats.
• To extract galangal juice, first reduce the knobby rhizome to a fine texture by either grating it with a Microplane or Japanese grater, or by thinly slicing it and then pounding the slices in a mortar to a mush. Press the solids through a fine-mesh sieve to obtain the milky liquid. For 1 tablespoon juice, you will need a 1 1/2-inch chunk of galangal.
• Some people don't care for the taste of Tangy-Sweet Shrimp Sauce, finding it too strongly flavored. Include an alternative of Basic Dipping Sauce (page 308), made without garlic, on the table.