Mackerel Pike Stew

Mackerel stew is a rustic dish of Vietnam. Enhancing it with a little change of ingredients and processing will make unique daily dishes. When I was growing up in Vietnam, a fish or meat stew was usually very salty due to an insufficient food supply to feed an always crowded Vietnamese family, such as mine. Fortunately, living now in America, we are enjoying a very comfortable life. Even for families of average income, their meals do not have to add a lot of salt to make sure everyone eats well. There are many recipes to create mackerel stew dishes. Today, I will share a simple recipe from Japan for making the stew. Tomatoes and fresh coconut water provide a soothing, sweet taste, and ginger, garlic, and hot peppers add a little tingling on the tongue. In fact, this recipe belongs to our Vietnamese culture, but, because I found a similar recipe on a website of a Japanese blogger, I give credit for the name of Japanese Mackerel stew.

Ingredients:
1 lb. mackerel pike
½ tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tbs soy sauce
Sauce ingredients:
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 fresh hot chilies, sliced
1 knob fresh ginger, chopped
1 tsp Korean chili powder
1 large tomato
2 shallots, minced
1/2 white onion, chopped
4 green onions, cut into 2 inch lengths
2 cups coconut water
1 tbs sugar
2 tbs coconut oil

Serve with cooked rice noodles or steamed rice

Directions:
Soak mackerel in water with lemon juice for 1 hour.

Clean out gills and guts from the fish..

Wash fish well with water. Place fish in a bowl and marinate with salt, pepper, and soy sauce for a few hours.

 

 

Bring small pot of water to boil. Cut top of the tomato as an X and drop in boiling water for a couple of minutes. Let tomato cool off. Remove tomato skin and rough chop tomato.

 

In a medium pan, heat coconut oil. Brown fish in both sides and remove.

Wipe off the pan to clean ; add a little more coconut oil. Stir in garlic, ginger, and chopped white onion and shallots.

Cook until fragrant (about 1 minute). Add Korean powder chili, sugar, and chopped tomatoes.

 Cook for 3 minutes or until the spices release their color. Add coconut water and bring to boil.

Add fish and bring back to boil. Skim off any scum that arises to water’s surface. Turn heat down and simmer for 30 minutes .

Re-season with 1 tbs fish sauce. Add green onions and cook further for another 2 minutes. Now stew is ready to serve.  

In a bottom of serving bowl, place chopped lettuce, julienne cucumber, and bean sprout.

 Top with cooked  wheat noodles.

 

 Ladle some broth, and fishes. Sprinkle  with chopped herbs such as basil and  cilantro. Enjoy