Easy Fried Fish Cake-Noodle Soup

Vietnam has a long coastline, so most of the cities that are on the coastline have their own famous soup called "Bánh canh chả cá” or fish soup. "Bánh" means cake, "canh" means soup, and “bánh" in this translation means rice noodles. Nha Trang, Phan Thiết, Phú Quốc, and Vũng Tàu are cities with this soup’s recipe. The type of the rice noodle is medium size and round shape. It is sold in most Vietnamese grocery stores, or Japanese Udon noodles  can be substituted for it. Making these noodles at home is quite simple too. They require equal amounts of rice flour and tapioca starch with some hot water. These ingredients are mixed by hand or with a KitchenAid stand mixer. One regret is that I never had a chance to taste this soup when I was in Vietnam, but by my reading most of the recipes that teach how to make this soup, I am confident to create my own recipe. Some recipes thicken the broth with cornstarch, and some others use clear broth. Even though I describe my soup’s preparation as easy and lazy, the result is fantastic. If you want to make an impression on guests, this soup is the one. They will think that only working all day in the kitchen could produce this kind of meal.

Ingredients:
For the fish cake:
1 lb. fish paste, homemade or store-bought
1 tsp fish sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 shallots, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 green onions, finely chopped
For the soup:
8 cups quality chicken broth
2 ripe plum tomatoes, finely chopped
1 tsp Korean chili powder
1/2 cup chopped white onions
1/2 tsp sugar
Shallot oil
5 shallots , thinly sliced
1/4 cup oil

1 lb. cooked rice noodles

Garnish with rau ram, cilantro, and green onions

Directions:
To make shallot oil:
In a small sauce pan , add oil and shallots. Fry slowly on medium heat until the shallots are crispy. Drain and reserve the oil for making fish cake.
To make fish cake:
Combine all the fish cake ingredients and mix well.

 In a large sauté pan, add shallot oil and place the fish cake onto the pan. Use a spatula to flatten the fish cake, and fry cake on both sides until golden brown.

 

 

 Let cool before cutting cake into thick slices or any shape that you want.

To make broth:
In a pot, add some oil. Add onions and cook for a few minutes. Add Korean chili powder and tomatoes. Stir in sugar and salt. Cook until the tomatoes are softened (about 5 minutes).

Add broth and bring to boil. Add the fish cake and simmer for a few minutes.

 Add noodles and season again with more fish sauce, salt, and black pepper. Bring soup  back to boil. Divide noodles and fish cake equally into each serving bowl. Sprinkle with crispy shallots, cilantro, rau ram, and green onions and ladle the soup broth over them. Serve.

To make Bánh canh:
1 cup rice flour
1 cup tapioca
1 cup hot water (more or less)
1/2 tsp salt
In a mixing bowl, combine rice flour, tapioca, and salt. Make a crater in the center and slowly pour in the hot water. Use a wooden spatula to mix well. Cover  the dough with plastic wrap for 20 minutes. Roll out dough and cut into long strips (about 6 inch lengths). Add some flour to prevent the noodles from sticking together. Bring a pot of water to boil. Drop the noodles in boiling water; The noodles are cooked when they float on the surface. Use a slotted spoon to remove the noodles and place in cold water.