Canh Chua (Vietnamese Hot and Sour Soup)
Canh chua is a Vietnamese sour soup of catfish, pineapple and sour bamboo in a salted fish sauce broth. It leans sweeter and sourer than Thai or Cambodian tom yum, and it is much less fiery. The pineapple supplies sweetness and the bamboo supplies tang, so the broth needs no long simmering. The whole fish cooks in ten minutes. Every family keeps its own version, so treat this one as a starting point.
Instructions
Put the whole fish in a dish with the crushed white scallions, black pepper, 1 teaspoon of salt and 4 teaspoons of nước mắm. Turn it to coat and leave it to marinate for 15 minutes.
Bring the water to a boil in a pot. Add the sour bamboo and the pineapple slices and boil for 5 minutes.
Lower the marinated fish into the pot and keep boiling until the fish has cooked for a total of 10 minutes.
While the fish cooks, stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons of nước mắm and 2 teaspoons of salt.
Ladle the soup into bowls and scatter the chopped coriander and green scallion tops over the top. The fish head traditionally stays on, but you can remove it if you prefer.
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