Fried Catfish with Ginger Lime Sauce

Vietnamese food isn't complicated stuff and often times, it's a rather simple combination of flavor and involves just a few ingredients. The other day, catfish fillet was on sale at the market and it looked good -- thick and with some slimy gloss, a sign of freshness. I bought 2 pounds to fry. Admittedly, catfish steaks would be fried if I was feeling like a purist, but I was looking for a simple home-cooked entree.

One of my favorite recipes is to panfry catfish and then make a relish of slow cooked onion and ginger with a splash of fish sauce at the end. That childhood favorite takes a long time to fry so I decided to deep fry. I was low on onion but high on lime so I opted for a classic Vietnamese. ginger lime dipping sauce (nuoc mam gung), which is often served with seafood. The result was fast, easy and delish. If you're afraid of deep frying, know that this is pretty low on the drama factor. It's very gentle and relatively fast. There was plenty of leftovers, which I refried a couple days later for another meal.

Fried Catfish with Ginger Lime Dipping Sauce

Serves 4 to 6

Chubby 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced
5 tablespoons fresh lime juice (2 or 3 limes)
21/2 tablespoons sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 pounds catfish fillet
1/4 cup cornstarch, potato starch or tapioca starch
Canola or corn oil, for deep frying

1. Make the dipping sauce first. In a small bowl, combine the ginger, lime juice, and sugar and stir to dissolve the sugar. Taste and adjust the flavors with more lime sugar or sugar as needed. The ginger and lime should both be prominent, but not to the point that they make you wince and pucker. Add the fish sauce, starting out with 2 tablespoons and adding more as your palate dictates. Set aside for 30 minutes to let the ginger bloom before serving.

2. Blot the fish dry with paper towel and then cut each fillet into squarish pieces, each about 2 by 2 inches big.

3. Use a medium saucepan, flat-bottomed wok, deep skillet, or 5-quart Dutch oven to fry the fish in. Pour in the oil to a depth of 3/4 to 1 inch and heat over medium-high heat to about 350ºF on a deep-fry thermometer. (If you don't have a deep-fry thermometer, stick a dry bamboo chopstick into the oil; if bubbles rise immediately to the surface, the oil is ready. )

4. As the oil heats up, toss the fish in the cornstarch, lightly tapping off the excess. Working in batches, slide the fish into the oil and fry for 2 to 4 minutes, flipping midway, until the fish is golden and lightly crisp. Scoop from the oil and drain on paper towel or a rack placed inside a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining fish. When you're about to serve, if any pieces of fish have softened, briefly refry them to crisp them up. Serve immediately with the dipping sauce.

Comments

[Binh]

Thanks Andrea, for the great recipe. This recipe can be done pan-fried too, if deep-frying is not an option.

"Nuoc mam gung" -- the ginger lime dipping sauce, is such an amazing addition to a meal, but often overlooked in materials about Vietnamese cuisine. The complexity of it rivals the chili-garlic dipping sauce, but it is much more refined in taste. Try it with a charbroiled fish too.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Oh yes, Binh, pan-frying the fish is so great. I usually follow an old recipe from my mom -- panfry the fish and it releases it oil so that the flesh becomes like catfish carnitas. Then I saute lots of onion and ginger in the remaining oil and stir in some fish sauce. That takes a little longer and I was in a hurry the other day.

This deep frying is kind of my short cut. Nuoc mam gung is fabulous and you're right, it is overshadowed by nuoc cham. Nuoc mam gung can be as fiery and more complex than chile garlic sauce too. One time I introduced it to a non-Viet friend and he drank the sauce.

[Rosa]

Fried fish tastes so great! And with this sauce, it can only be delicious!

Cheers,

Rosa

[Andrea Nguyen]

Rosa, you can fry any fish and eat it with that sauce!

[QUYEN]

Found this recipe this morning and made it for lunch. It was so quick and delicous. I will make this every weekend. My 7 year-old use the ginger-lime sauce to dip her steamed mussels.

[Andrea Nguyen]

So cool, Quyen. Glad to know your son has such a great palate!