Canh Chua is a popular Vietnamese sweet and sour soup known for its tangy and refreshing flavor. The broth is made with tamarind, tomatoes, pineapple and shrimp and garnished with paddy herbs, which gives it its signature taste, and bean sprouts. Serve with rice and you have a winner!
Ingredients
Marinade:
2lbsshrimp, shell on, tails removed
3Tbspfish sauce
½tspblack pepper
Fried garlic:
½cupavocado oil, or any neutral oil
8garlic cloves, chopped
Broth:
¼cupoil, from fried garlic above
2largeshallots, peeled, sliced
⅓cuptamarind paste
½cuprock sugar
2Tbspchicken bouillon
2Tbspmushroom powder
1Tbspfish sauce
½pineapple, peeled and cut into bit size pieces
27.4 oz cans straw mushroom, drained
4cupsbean sprouts
10-12inchlong bac ha, peeled and sliced (or you can substitute with 2 cups of okra, cut to ¼ inch slices)
4tomatoes, quartered
1Tbsptomato paste
3quartswater
Optional garnish:
ngo om, rough chop, essential for this dish as it’s what makes the flavor
basil, rough chop
cilantro, rough chop
culantro, rough chop
whole Thai chili peppers, cut diagonally long (optional)
Instructions
Marinate shrimp with fish sauce and a pinch of black pepper.
In a small saucepan, heat ½ cup of oil.
Turn off heat once it’s hot, then add chopped garlic and fry it until it turns light brown and strain. Set the fried garlic aside. This will be used as a garnishment to the pot of soup.
In a 7 quart pot on medium high heat, add ¼ cup of the garlic infused oil.
Once hot, add sliced shallots and stir fry for a few minutes until they soften.
Add marinated shrimp, then add remaining broth ingredients and 3 quarts of water.
Bring it to a boil, then reduce heat to let it simmer on low heat for 20 minutes so all the flavors infuse, and the tamarind paste and rock sugar have completely melted.
Right before serving, add the following to the pot: ngo om, basil, cilantro, culantro, fried garlic and Thai chili (optional).