Tribute to Fr Z.

Since Fr Z (What Does the Prayer Really Say) regularly posts cooking adventures, I thought I'd do the same with a little culinary adventure of my own. Last night I had the desire to prepare a fish dish I hadn't made for a long time, but have fond memories of; Ca Chien Sot Ca (Fried fish with tomato sauce) from the book "The Classic Cuisine of Vietnam," by Ngo and Zimmerman.

Since my cookbook is 50 miles from home, I actually found a version of the recipe at the NY Times, which Fr Z calls, not without cause, "Hell's bible." But it gave me enough to go on.

So, in Zinimascope, here it is...

The fish sauce is mixed with sugar; the garlic sliced paper thin, and the onion tomatoes are diced. Those in the know will be disappointed I'm using Phillipine dark fish sauce instead of Vietnamese clear, but it's what I had in the house. You'll notice the quantities are far more than the linked recipe. well, I like this stuff!

The fish is fried in olive oil (I used red snapper)

Then it is set aside and everything else is rendered down in the pan.
The fish sauce is boiled off …

…resulting in sort of glazed veggies and served over the fish with (Thai Jasmine) rice.

With all that garlic, how can you go wrong?