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Preparation
40 minutes
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Cooking
45 minutes
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Difficulty
Easy
Basa fish hotpot is one of the incredibly delicious and characteristic dishes of the river region in the Mekong Delta. The rich and flavorful taste from linh fish sauce and snakehead fish sauce combined with pork belly and basa fish served with familiar vegetables such as water spinach, kèo nèo, lotus flowers, and water hyacinth… Let’s get into the kitchen to make this delicious hotpot!
Ingredients for Basa Fish Hotpot For 4 people
Linh fish sauce 150 gr Snakehead fish sauce 150 gr Pork belly 400 gr Basa fish 600 gr Eggplant 300 gr Lemongrass 50 gr Minced lemongrass 50 gr Minced garlic 10 gr Minced onion 10 gr Minced chili 10 gr Small chili 4 pieces Water spinach 500 gr Lotus flowers 300 gr Kèo nèo 300 gr Water hyacinth 500 g Noodles 1 kg Fish sauce 1 teaspoon Sugar/ seasoning powder a little
How to choose fresh and delicious ingredients
How to choose good quality fish sauce
- To find good quality fish sauce, you should buy from reputable brands that have been certified for food safety and are carefully packaged.
- You can buy fish sauce at supermarkets, reputable food stores, or at the nearest TasteVN supermarket. For more convenience, you can also order online at bachhoaxanh.com.
- Additionally, to feel more secure, you can also make fish sauce at home simply with the recipe shared by TasteVN below.
How to choose fresh and delicious catfish
- Fresh and delicious catfish are best when they are still alive. Therefore, you should look for live fish to ensure the best quality for your dish.
- Moreover, you should choose fish that swim vigorously, have a light green skin, shiny silver scales, clear eyes, and bright red gills.
- On the contrary, you should avoid fish that swim weakly, have bloated bellies, and pale skin.
How to choose fresh and delicious pork belly (three-layered pork)
- To buy good pork belly, you should choose meat that has a light red or bright pink color. When cut, the inside of the meat will appear light pink, slightly shiny, and the layer of fat in between should be bright white.
- Good, clean pork belly usually has the meat and fat tightly attached to each other, not too loose when held in hand. The outer layer of skin and fat should be about 1.5 – 2cm thick.
- Do not buy meat that has a fishy, spoiled smell as it may have been stored for too long or injected with chemicals, which will not be safe to eat.
How to choose fresh, quality eggplants
- Fresh and good eggplants are those that have a shiny color, are uniform in color, with smooth skin, and the stem still green and firmly attached to the fruit.
- Additionally, you should choose eggplants that feel firm in your hand, and when gently pressed, you can feel their firmness, not soft and mushy.
- Avoid choosing eggplants with wrinkled skin, bruises, or scratches, and wilted stems as these are low-quality eggplants.
How to prepare Fish Sauce Hotpot
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Prepare the ingredients
Meat is cleaned with diluted salt water and lemon, then drained and sliced thinly to taste.
Effective ways to eliminate the smell of pork- Step 1: After purchasing the meat, wash it thoroughly with water.
- Step 2: Soak the meat in diluted salt water for 10 – 15 minutes. To enhance the smell-eliminating effect, you can add a few smashed ginger slices and a few drops of white wine to the soaking water.
- Step 3: Remove the meat and rinse it under tap water until done.
See details: Effective ways to eliminate the smell of pork
Basa fish is cleaned of slime with boiling water, rinsed with salt water and lemon until the basa fish is free of slime, then cut into slices.
Effective ways to eliminate the fishy smell of fish- Method 1: You can eliminate the fishy smell of basa fish by rubbing it with salt and gently massaging it to avoid peeling the fish skin. Rinse it thoroughly with water and then let it drain.
- Method 2: Marinate the cleaned basa fish with 2 – 3 tablespoons of diluted white wine for about 2 minutes, then rinse it with clean water and let it drain.
- Method 3: Using lemon to eliminate the fishy smell of basa fish is also very effective. Cut a lemon in half and rub it over the fish or mix 2 – 3 tablespoons of lemon juice and salt in a bowl to wash the fish. After that, rinse it with water until clean.
See details: Effective ways to eliminate the fishy smell of fish
The types of vegetables to accompany should be washed clean with salted water.
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Make the fish sauce
Place a pot on the stove and adjust the heat to medium, add 500ml of filtered water along with 150g of fermented snakehead fish and 150g of fermented linh fish. Cook for about 15 – 20 minutes until it boils, and the sauce will dissolve. At that time, you use a sieve to filter out all the fish sauce.
Tip: You should filter 2 – 3 times to get all the fish meat!
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Stir-fry pork belly
Place a pan on the stove, heat 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and sauté the onions, garlic, lemongrass, and chili until fragrant. Once fragrant, add the pork belly and stir-fry until the meat is firm.
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Cook fish sauce hotpot
When the meat in the pan is firm, add 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of seasoning powder, and stir well. Next, add the filtered fish sauce along with 1 liter of water to the pot and cook over high heat.
Once the fish sauce pot is boiling, skim off the foam, reduce the heat, and continue to cook for 10 – 12 minutes until the meat is nearly tender. Finally, add the basa fish and cook for about 15 – 20 minutes until the fish is cooked, then add 1 teaspoon of fish sauce. Adjust the seasoning to taste and turn off the heat.
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Finished Product
Put the fish sauce hot pot into the electric hot pot, decorate with a few chili peppers for aesthetics, and then enjoy it with noodles and various side vegetables. The dish has a rich flavor typical of the Mekong Delta, with the sweetness of fish and meat combined with the distinctive aroma of fermented fish, which will surely make you exclaim!
See more
So TasteVN has introduced you to the recipe for cooking basa fish hotpot with the authentic flavor of the Mekong Delta, delicious and appealing, and simple as well. What are you waiting for? Let’s get started in the kitchen right away. TasteVN wishes you success!
