The rustic variation in processing snakehead fish with coconut milk

Over the centuries, the Vietnamese family meal has never had a lack of braised dishes. Each region has its own dishes with different flavors. My hometown is no exception.  Being known as "Coconut land", many dishes which are combined with coconut milk always make customers feel not only charming but also fragrance and be hard for us to resist. On rainy days, there are a lot of fish in the paddy rice fields, and I remember my grandfather often used to make braised dishes from perch, catfish, snakehead fish. My most impressed memory has been snakehead fish cooked in coconut milk.

I call this dish is a version of the countryside because my grandfather said that to cook this dish to become delicious, it must be made from natural snakehead fish. In this way the meat will have a natural sweetness and firmness. Furthermore, the coconut milk from old ripening coconut is true version with many attractive steps. Cooking is an art because of choosing ingredients to cooking techniques and we still have to put our mind, sincerity into each dish, the customers will feel the taste and never forget.

Braised snakehead fish with coconut milk (photo: Tuong Vi)

It is quick and easy for us to make this braised snakehead fish. First, clean snakehead fish, cut the fish into slices and then marinate the fish about 30 minutes with spices such as salt, sugar, pepper, fish sauce, red onions and a little coconut water to create an eye-catching color when we finished. When the pot heats up, we add cooking oil and minced garlic and minced lemongrass for being fragrant, and cook the marinated fish mixture. Next, we use a bamboo chopstick to up side down the slices of fish and wait until the meat is solid again to add coconut milk. At this time, the snakehead fish pot must be boiled over a low fire and until the mixture in the pot is almost dry, we turn off the stove, sprinkle with pepper and scallions on top. We really like to eat hot rice with it when we hear how to cook it.

Snakehead fish with coconut milk is extremely delicious attractive because of the color, good mixture and it aroma. This dish when served with rice must be used with raw vegetables such as lettuce, basil, perilla, cucumber. On the rainy days, when the whole family sits around a hot tray of rice, served with snakehead fish with coconut milk dotted with the above raw vegetables, this is not only a simple rural version but also a childhood memory of many people of coconut land.

Snakehead fish is known as a sweet, warm, non-toxic and has goad effect to blood, tendons, bones. Braised snakehead fish with coconut milk is made from very simple ingredients, easy to seek and not too picky to cook method but to process a good meal, true taste of coconut land, it requires people to cook carefully and meticulously.

Nowadays, when traveling to Ben Tre, domestic and foreign tourists can easily enjoy braised snakehead fish with coconut milk served with white rice at restaurants, hotels, and homestays. The sweet, grease, irresistible aroma of this dish will surely make visitors remember forever, it is the rustic countryside version, an idyllic beauty in culinary culture of Coconut land.

Author: Tuong Vi

Translator: Phuong Thy

Source: https://dulich.bentre.gov.vn