Cha Ca La Vong (Turmeric Fish with Dill Wilted at the Table)

Variations

• Pan and burner: in Hanoi a small pan sits over a charcoal brazier; at home a portable burner and a small frying pan do the job. The pan wants to be small enough that the oil lies in a shallow pool.
• Dipped in mam tom: instead of nuoc cham, it is also eaten dipped in mam tom loosened with a little lime juice and sugar.
• Other fish: without catfish or snakehead, use a firm white fish such as cod or pollock. Soft-fleshed fish breaks up when it is turned in the table pan.
• Another dish from the same table: bun cha is the Hanoi way too, charcoal-grilled and eaten with bun and herbs, dipped in nuoc cham. The difference is whether the herbs arrive raw or are cooked in the pan.

Tips

• A bunch of herbs that is neither wrung, fried long nor boiled. Fresh herbs says of dishes where herbs make up the bulk: "Volume brings water with it and thins the liquid, which is why dishes in this class either wring the herbs out, fry them a long time, or boil them." The dill here goes through none of those. Two bunches go into the oil almost as they are and are only wilted, in under a minute. That works because this pan has no liquid to thin. The water the dill brings flashes to steam in the hot oil and leaves, and what is left is leaves coated in oil.
• The rule for delicate herbs still holds. The same guide files dill among the delicate herbs: "Thin, wet leaves that collapse on contact with heat." This dish does not break that. At a table pan the eater is at the burner, so the dill spends only as long in the oil as it takes to serve one portion. That is why it goes in in rounds, not all at once; put it all in at the start and from the second bowl on you are eating yellowed, collapsed leaves.
• Drying the herbs follows from the same fact. With no liquid in the pan, there is nowhere for water to go. A wet handful of dill spits oil, and it drops the pan's temperature so the leaves stew instead of frying.
• The fish is cooked before it reaches the table. It is grilled through over charcoal first, and the table pan only crisps the outside again and wilts the herbs. So the table part takes a minute or two, and nothing waits for the fish while the herbs go limp.
• The name says fish cake, and the fish is not minced. Chả means something minced, seasoned and grilled or fried, so chả cá on its own is fish cake. A fish cake, as kamaboko shows, is built by mincing and working with salt for spring; this dish uses the fish in pieces. So choose a firm-fleshed freshwater fish that holds together when it is turned at the table.
• The turmeric is not only for colour. It is what turns the fish yellow, and together with the galangal it also covers the muddy note of freshwater fish. A few hours of marinating is enough; left overnight, the salt in the fish sauce draws water out of the flesh, and it grills up dry.