On hot days, sour soup with a sweet and sour taste, served with tender, fresh fish, will make family meals more flavorful and appealing. Let’s cook with TasteVN today to learn how to make sour soup with pond fish and tilapia!
1. Sour Soup with Pond Fish
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Preparation
45 minutes
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Difficulty
Easy
Ingredients for Sour Soup with Pond Fish Serves 4
Water lily 400 gr Okra 200 gr Pond fish 4 fish Tomato 1 fruit Chili 1 fruit Ripe tamarind 50 gr Minced garlic 2 tablespoons Basil 2 sprigs Vietnamese coriander 2 sprigs Cilantro 2 sprigs Cooking oil 2 tablespoons Fish sauce 1 tablespoon Common spices a little (Sugar/salt/seasoning)
How to choose fresh ingredients
How to choose fresh swamp fish
- You should choose swamp fish that are round in shape, usually male fish, about 3 to 4 fingers in size, intact, with few scales peeling off. These fish will provide more meat, and the flesh will be firmer and fattier.
- Choose fish with bright red gills, clear eyes, and bodies without white spots or blood clots, completely intact without any skin wounds.
- It is best to select larger fish that feel firm when held, and if pressed lightly, they should be elastic; if the flesh is not flaky, then they can be chosen.
How to choose fresh water lilies
You should choose fresh water lilies, just picked, not wilted or bruised. This way, after finishing the dish, the water lilies will have the characteristic crunchy deliciousness.
How to prepare Sour Soup with Swamp Fish
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Prepare the swamp fish
Clean the fish by scraping off the scales, cutting off the gills, removing the entrails, and rinsing well with diluted salt water to eliminate the fishy smell. Then rinse with clean water and let it drain.
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Prepare other ingredients
For the water lilies, peel off the fibrous part, wash them clean with water, and let them drain. Cut into pieces about 3 – 4 cm long.
Wash the tomatoes and cut them into wedges. Clean the okra and cut it diagonally. Wash and chop the basil, cilantro, and coriander finely.
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Extract tamarind juice
Put tamarind in a bowl, pour about 150ml of hot water into it, soak for about 10 minutes until the tamarind softens, then strain through a sieve to extract the juice.
Tip: You can put the tamarind in a sieve and filter it directly into the pot while cooking.
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Cook sour soup
Place a pot on the stove, add about 2 tablespoons of cooking oil to the pot, medium heat. When the oil starts to heat up, reduce the heat to low, add 2 tablespoons of minced garlic to the pot and sauté until fragrant. Remove half of the sautéed garlic to a bowl, leaving the rest in the pot.
Next, add the snakehead fish to the pot, gently turn the fish to absorb the sautéed garlic evenly on both sides. Fry the fish for about 1 – 2 minutes, then pour in 800ml of filtered water, keeping the heat high. Once the water in the pot begins to boil, skim off the white foam.
To enhance the flavor of the soup, add 2 tablespoons of sugar, 100ml of tamarind juice, and stir gently for the sugar to dissolve. Then lower the heat, and add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of fish sauce, gently stir the soup.
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Completion
When the soup begins to boil, adjust the heat to medium. Then gradually add the okra and tomatoes into the pot, cooking until done, then turn off the heat. Finally, add the water lily to the pot. Top with Vietnamese coriander, cilantro, basil, and chili.
Note: If you don’t like the water lily to be crunchy, you can cook it until soft before turning off the heat.
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Final Product
Add fried garlic on top of the soup to enhance the aroma. The soup has a moderate sweet and sour taste. The water lily is crunchy, and the snakehead fish is tender and fresh. This soup served with hot rice is very appetizing.
2. Sour Soup with Tilapia
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Preparation
30 minutes
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Cooking
30 minutes
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Difficulty
Easy
Ingredients for Sour Soup with Tilapia Serves 4 people
Tilapia 600 gr Tomatoes 2 fruits Pineapple 1/2 fruit (dứa) Water Morning Glory 2 stalks (bạc hà) Bean Sprouts 100 gr Vietnamese Coriander A little Okra 50 gr Shallots 1 bulb Garlic 1 clove Chili 2 fruits Tamarind Juice 20 gr Fish Sauce 2 tablespoons Cooking Oil 5 tablespoons Salt/ Sugar A little
How to choose fresh ingredients
How to choose fresh tilapia
- Large tilapia should be used for soup, while smaller fish are better for braising as they absorb the flavors easily. Deep-frying small fish will be great, the fish bones will be very crispy, making it enjoyable to eat.
- When choosing fish, look for those with a round body, as these will be male tilapia, which have more flesh, and the meat will be firmer and fattier.
- If braising fish, you might want to buy female fish, as they have larger bellies filled with eggs, which will taste richer.
How to choose fresh dọc mùng (a type of vegetable)
You should choose long, slender dọc mùng; avoid ones that are too small or too large. Pick dọc mùng with fresh colors that are not wilted, bruised, or infested.
How to choose fresh pineapple
- Choose pineapples that have bright yellow color from the crown to the base, with possibly a few green eyes; these are ripe and will be sweet and delicious.
- Choose round, short pineapples as they will have more flesh compared to long ones.
- Choose pineapples with large, sparse eyes as this indicates that they are mature and naturally ripe, without being chemically treated.
- You can try smelling the end of the fruit; if it has a fragrant aroma, it’s a good idea to buy it. Additionally, avoid those with a slightly sour smell, as they are overripe.
- The greener the top of the pineapple, the fresher it is. Overripe pineapples will have dry or brownish tops.
- Choose fresh and delicious pineapples that are not too hard nor too soft; when you press your finger into them, they should not feel indented.
How to Make Sour Fish Soup with Tilapia
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Prepare the Tilapia
For tilapia purchased, you need to gut it, remove the fins, and scrape off the scales.
Then, wash it thoroughly with water and soak the fish in diluted salt water for about 5 minutes, rinse it with water once more, then let it drain and cut it into 3 pieces.
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Prepare other ingredients
Strip the elephant ear stem (water morning glory) of its skin, wash it clean, then cut it diagonally. Cut off the ends of the okra, and cut it into pieces about 2 fingers long.
Peel the pineapple, remove the eyes, discard the core, and cut into fan-shaped slices. Wash the tomatoes, peel them, and cut into wedges.
Soak the tamarind in a bowl with 100 ml of warm water and use a spoon to mash the tamarind. Then strain out the seeds.
Wash the bean sprouts with water and let them drain. Peel and crush the shallots and garlic, then chop them finely along with the chili. Wash the coriander and Vietnamese coriander, let them drain, and chop them finely.
Quick and simple way to peel pineapple
- How to peel the pineapple: Cut off both ends of the pineapple, then use a knife to peel from top to bottom or place the pineapple on a cutting board and use a knife to cut away the outer skin. You will get a standing cylindrical pineapple.
- How to remove the eyes of the pineapple: Use a knife to cut grooves along the body of the pineapple to remove the eyes. You can also use a specialized tool to remove these eyes.
- Note that you should cut shallowly; if you cut too deep, there will be little flesh left, which is very wasteful.
See details: 5 simple ways to peel pineapple
How to prepare elephant ear stem (water morning glory) without itching
- After peeling, soak it in salt water for about 20 – 30 minutes to remove the sap. Then, take it out and gently squeeze with salt, then soak again in clean water for 15 minutes, repeating this process about 2 times before draining.
- Before cooking, blanch the elephant ear stem in boiling water; it will no longer be itchy.
- When handling elephant ear stem, remember to wear gloves to avoid itchy hands.
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Pre-fry the fish
You place a pan on the stove, turn on medium heat to heat the pan, then add 5 tablespoons of cooking oil, when the oil is hot, add half of the minced onion, garlic, and chili to sauté until fragrant.
Then, you add the fish and fry it for about 5 minutes, when the fish is slightly golden, turn the fish over and fry for another 5 minutes, then transfer the fish to a plate.
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Cook the soup
You reuse the oil from frying the fish and pour it into a pot, place the pot on the stove over medium heat, then add the remaining minced shallots, garlic, and chili to sauté until fragrant.
Then, add the tomatoes and pineapple, stir-fry with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Add 1.5 liters of water, cover the pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the fried fish and tamarind juice.
When the water comes to a boil again, add the water spinach, bean sprouts, and okra, and season with 1 teaspoon of salt, 3 tablespoons of sugar, and 2 tablespoons of fish sauce. Stir gently and cook for another 5 minutes before turning off the heat.
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Final Product
Hot and fragrant sour fish soup with a sour, spicy, and sweet broth, with deliciously fragrant and fatty fish meat. Dipping the fish in spicy fish sauce makes it truly amazing.
How to prepare clean, non-fishy mudfish and tilapia
- You should use vinegar or lemon to wash the fish thoroughly, which helps reduce some of the slime and effectively neutralizes the fishy smell.
- Throughout the process of scaling and cleaning the fish’s belly, you can soak the fish in diluted salt water for about 15 – 20 minutes.
- Finally, rub salt all over the fish and rinse with water until completely clean.
How to choose fresh, delicious tomatoes
- You should choose tomatoes that have smooth, shiny skin, are plump and juicy with a bright red color, and still have green stems.
- Avoid choosing those that are bruised or have small black spots, or those that have uneven colors with both green and red.
- If you touch them and they feel too soft or too hard, or if they leak juice, do not buy them as they may be spoiled.
How to choose fresh, delicious okra
- Choose fresh, young okra pods that are small in size, have a beautiful shiny green color, and have a thin layer of fine hairs on the outer skin.
- Avoid buying pods that are soft or have bruises on the outside, as well as those that are too large, which will be overripe and not tasty.
- When you gently press with your fingers, if the skin feels crunchy, firm, and not soft or dented, it is fresh, young okra.
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Wishing you success in making 2 delicious and refreshing ways to cook sour soup with wild snakehead fish and tilapia to treat your family!
*Refer to the images and recipes from 2 YouTube channels: What to Eat Here and COOKING BY SEASON.
