Vietnamese Grilled Catfish with Noodles (Cha Ca)

morelhunter's Note:

You can serve this with rice instead of noodles. You can use the dipping sauce over almost anything - as a dip, over noodles, on salads, seafood and meats. You can make it up to 1 day ahead, just refrigerate.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 30 mins
• Prep Time: 1 hrs
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1⁄3; cup minced shallot
• 3 tablespoons asian fish sauce (nuoc mam or nam pla)
• 1 tablespoon red curry powder or 1 tablespoon yellow curry powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1⁄8; teaspoon cayenne
• 2 cloves garlic , peeled,minced
• 6 (6 ounce) boned catfish fillets or 6 (6 ounce) tilapia fillets
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 4 cups iceberg lettuce , in bite-size pieces (8 oz)
• 3 cups bean sprouts , rinsed (6-8 oz)
• ½ cup fresh cilantro leaves
• 6 cups cooled cooked rice noodles (about 1/8 in. wide, mai fun, rice sticks, or rice vermicelli)
• ½ cup chopped dry roasted salted peanut
• 1⁄3; cup thinly sliced green onion (including tops)
• ½ cup chopped fresh dill
• ½ cup fried shallot (see below)

dipping sauce

• ½ cup asian fish sauce (nuoc mam or nam pla)
• ¼ cup rice vinegar
• ¼ cup lime juice
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 cloves garlic , minced
• 1 -1 ½ teaspoon minced hot red chile , such as thai,serrano,fresno,or asian red chili paste

Directions:

1. Mix minced shallots, fish sauce, curry powder, ginger, turmeric, cayenne and garlic.
2. Rinse fish and pat dry.
3. Place fillets and shallot mixture in a large plastic bag, turn to coat.
4. Refrigerate and marinade at least 30 min.
5. up to 24 hours.
6. Lightly coat fillets with oil and place on foil.
7. Grill on high heat, turning once, until barely opaque but still moist-looking in center of thickest part, 4-8 min.
8. total.
9. Divide lettuce, bean sprouts, cilantro between 6 deep wide bowls.
10. Mound noodles over vegetables.
11. Lay a fish fillet on each mound of noodles.
12. Sprinkle peanuts, green onions, dill and fried shallots over the top.
13. Drizzle with dipping sauce and pass remaining sauce in bowl.
14. Fried shallots-Saute 1 c.
15. thinly sliced shallots in 2 tbsp.
16. salad oil in a 10 inch skillet until golden, 6-10 min.
17. Vietnamese Dipping Sauce-Mix 1/2 cup water, fish sauce, vinegar, lime juice, sugar, garlic.
18. Add chili to taste.

Reviews

[Chef #725332]

I won't leave stars since I didn't follow the whole recipe. I skipped the dipping sauce and I made fried rice instead of noodles since I had so much leftover rice. I used 4 catfish fillets, yellow curry, yellow onions instead of shallot. There's enough sodium in the fish sauce, so no need to salt the fish. I broiled the fish (7 or 8 minutes) til done. It was very good. I think the noodles would have complemented them well!