Cha ca (Vietnamese turmeric fish with dill)
Turmeric-golden fish sizzled with heaps of fresh dill and green onions over rice noodles, with peanuts and a tangy fish sauce dressing.
- 45 min total
- 30 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $3.57 a serving
- 510 calories
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1¼ lb frozen white fish fillets, thawed, patted dry and cut into 2-inch pieces
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
- 3 cloves garlic, minced, divided
- ¼ cup fish sauce, divided
- 8 oz rice noodles
- 2 limes, juiced
- 1 cup fresh dill, roughly chopped
- 6 green onions, cut into 2-inch pieces
- ¼ cup peanuts, chopped
From your pantry
- 1½ tsp ground turmeric
- 2 tbsp sugar, divided
- ⅓ cup water
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
Each serving has about 510 calories, 30 g protein, 62 g carbs and 17 g fat, and costs about $3.57 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No limes? Lemons work.
- No green onions? Chives work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the fish with the turmeric, ginger, 1 clove of the garlic, 1 tablespoon of the fish sauce and 1 teaspoon of the sugar. Cover and leave it in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Timer: 15 min
Dolly’s tip: Turmeric stains. Toss with a spoon, in a bowl you don’t mind turning yellow.Soak the noodles in a big bowl of very hot tap water for 8 to 10 minutes, until tender, then and under cold water.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Timer: 9 min
the lime juice, water, the rest of the fish sauce, sugar and garlic, and the red pepper flakes together until the sugar dissolves. This is your dressing.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Heat the oil in a large nonstick over medium-high heat until it . Cook the fish in one layer for 2 to 3 minutes per side, until and it flakes easily.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Shimmering oil. Oil shimmers when it’s hot enough to cook: its surface looks rippled and wavy, like heat over a road. That’s your cue to add the food, just before the oil would start to smoke.
How you’ll know: The oil looks wavy and runs thin like water when you tilt the pan, with no smoke yet.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium-high heatTimer: 5 min
Food safety: Fish is done at 145°F, when the middle looks opaque and flakes apart easily with a fork.
Pile the dill and green onions on top of the fish and gently for 30 seconds, just until they .
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Medium-high heatTimer: 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Yes, that much dill. It wilts into the oil and turns sweet and fragrant. It’s the whole point of the dish.Divide the noodles among bowls, top with the fish and herbs, sprinkle with the peanuts and spoon the dressing over.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
More dinners like this
Vietnamese caramel catfish (cá kho)
50 min
Microwave Vietnamese caramel fish
32 min
Fish sarciado (Filipino fish in tomato and egg sauce)
45 min
Fresh spring rolls with shrimp
50 min
Easy Vietnamese dinner recipes ›Healthy white fish recipes ›