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Ca Kho To - Fish Braised in Caramel Sauce

Sugar is caramelised dry until it is almost bitter - only then do fish sauce and fish go in. The sauce turns dark brown, not sweet.

Ca Kho To - Fish Braised in Caramel Sauce

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Melt the sugar in a heavy pot with no water and no stirring. It turns liquid, then golden, then copper brown - stop exactly there; a second later it is burnt.
  2. Immediately add 150 ml hot water - it spits violently, so keep the pot at arm's length. The caramel dissolves again.
  3. Stir in fish sauce, garlic, ginger and pepper and simmer for two minutes.
  4. Lay in the fish pieces, spoon the sauce over and braise covered over low heat for twelve minutes. Do not stir, just swirl the pot.
  5. Take off the lid and reduce the sauce uncovered until it coats the fish.
  6. Scatter with spring onions and serve with rice.

Warum der Karamell fast bitter sein muss

As sugar caramelises it breaks down into hundreds of new compounds, bitter ones among them. Those are exactly what Vietnamese kho dishes need: they give the sauce depth and stop it tasting like pudding.

What is actually in it? Up-Food calculates over 30 nutrients for this recipe from the real ingredient amounts – based on verified USDA data, not estimates.

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