Preparation
15 minutes
Cooking
40 minutes
Difficulty
Easy
Ingredients for Salted Melon Tuna Stew For 4 people
Tuna 500 gr (about 4 slices) Salted melon 1 piece Shallots 3 bulbs Garlic 1 bulb (about 6 – 7 cloves) Chili 1 piece Fish sauce 4 tablespoons Coloring sauce 1.5 teaspoons Cooking oil a little Common spices a little (Sugar/ salt/ seasoning/ monosodium glutamate/ ground pepper)
How to choose fresh ingredients
How to choose fresh tuna
For fresh tuna:
- You should choose fish with clear, shiny eyes, bright red gills, and skin that is not torn or scratched.
- Additionally, when buying tuna, you should select fish that has good elasticity when touched and does not have an unpleasant fishy smell.
- Avoid choosing fish with sunken eyes and soft, mushy flesh. These are fish that have been caught for a long time, and they will not taste good anymore.
For frozen tuna:
- You should choose tuna with a packaging date that is as close to the purchase date as possible. Typically, the best tuna will be caught within a month.
- Moreover, you should select frozen tuna with intact packaging, clearly stating the origin at supermarkets or reputable fish-selling establishments.
- Do not choose pieces of fish with a thick layer of frost as they are often stored for too long or have been thawed and refrozen, which makes them not tasty.
How to choose safe and guaranteed pickled melon
- Delicious pickled melon has a natural fermentation smell without any strange odor, and the pickled melon water should not have mold floating, it must be clear.
- The melon should retain a beautiful light greenish-yellow color. Avoid choosing those that are overly yellow, dark yellow, or too green.
- Choose melons that are of moderate size, not rotten, and intact. If possible, you should choose those that are crispy and have a balanced sour taste.
- Pay attention to buying at reputable stores with packaging to ensure the shelf life and origin of the melon.
- To ensure quality, you can make pickled melon at home with a simple recipe shared by TasteVN.
How to Cook Salted Tuna Stew with Pickled Melon
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Prepare the Ingredients
After purchasing the tuna, rinse it with diluted saltwater, then wash again with clean water and let it drain. Next, marinate the fish with 2 teaspoons of salt for about 15 minutes, then place it in a pan of hot oil to fry briefly.
Tip: Frying the tuna briefly helps reduce the fishy smell, makes the fish meat firmer, absorbs spices better, and prevents it from breaking during the stewing process.
How to Clean Tuna Properly
- Method 1: After cleaning the tuna, soak it in diluted saltwater or rice washing water for about 15 minutes, then rinse it again to be ready for cooking.
- Method 2: You can soak the fish in vinegar mixed with cold water or lemon juice for about 10 minutes, then rinse it with clean water.
- Method 3: After cleaning the fish, marinate it with diluted white wine for about 2 minutes, then dry it to limit the fishy smell.
- Method 4: Soak the fish in a mixture of water with crushed chili, ginger, and onion for 10 minutes, then rinse with water.
See details: How to Clean Tuna Without Fishy Smell
For the pickled melon, cut it in half, remove some seeds, then use a knife to slice it thinly. Next, rinse the melon several times with water, then squeeze it well to remove excess saltiness and sourness.
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Marinate and stew the fish
You put 2 shallots, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 chili, 1 spoon of ground pepper, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of seasoning powder, and 1 teaspoon of monosodium glutamate into a mortar and pound them finely. Then add 4 tablespoons of fish sauce and stir well.
Next, you drizzle the mixed seasoning over the fish along with 1.5 teaspoons of coloring sauce and mix well. Marinate the fish for about 30 minutes to 1 hour for the flavors to soak in.
You put a pot on the stove, then add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and heat it up, then add 1 shallot and 2 crushed cloves of garlic to sauté until fragrant.
Once the shallots and garlic are fragrant, add the pickled melon to the bottom of the pot and then layer the fish on top, add another 1/2 bowl of water, turn the heat to high and bring to a boil.
When the water starts to boil, lower the heat and continue to stew until the sauce thickens. After about 20 minutes of cooking, you can taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking, then turn off the heat.
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Final Product
Salted gourd braised tuna, once completed, will have a brown color with an enticing aromatic smell that invites diners.
When eaten, one can feel the firmness of the fish meat, fragrant and rich, soaked in deep flavors, combined with the crispy salted gourd, sweet and sour, stimulating the taste buds immensely.
This dish, when paired with hot rice and fresh vegetables, will ensure that you and your family cannot resist.
So, the dish salted gourd braised tuna has been successfully completed, unique, delicious, attractive, and incredibly tasty. Get into the kitchen to try the recipe shared by TasteVN to make your meals more refreshing! Wish you success!
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