Fast Vietnamese Caramel Bluefish
- Total Time
- 20 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:4 servings
- 4(6-ounce) skin-on bluefish fillets (or substitute mackerel, trout or thin salmon fillets)
- 1tablespoon peanut, grapeseed or safflower oil
- 1stalk lemongrass, or use lemon or lime zest (see note)
- ⅓cup light brown sugar
- 2tablespoons Asian fish sauce
- 1½tablespoons soy sauce
- 1teaspoon grated ginger
- ½teaspoon black pepper
- Sliced scallions, as needed
- Thinly sliced jalapeño, as needed
- Fresh cilantro, as needed
- Cooked rice, for serving (optional)
Preparation
- Step 1
Brush fish all over with oil. Remove outer layer of lemongrass stalk and cut stalk into 2-inch lengths. Using the butt of a kitchen knife, pound and bruise stalks all over.
- Step 2
Place lemongrass pieces, sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, ginger and black pepper in a large skillet. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, and reduce sauce for 1 to 2 minutes, until syrupy.
- Step 3
Place fish, skin side-down, in pan. Simmer, basting fish frequently with pan sauce, for 2 minutes; carefully turn fish and continue cooking until fish is just cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes longer.
- Step 4
Transfer fish to a serving plate and garnish with scallion, jalapeño and cilantro. Drizzle with additional sauce. Serve over rice, if desired.
Tip
- If you can’t get lemongrass, peel a 2-inch strip of lemon or lime zest with a peeler and use that instead. You don’t need to bruise the peel.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
lisa
High hopes, somewhat dashed. Cut the sugar in half, and it was plenty sweet. Bigger issue was sauce -- the ingredients shrank immediately in the pan, so we needed to add more liquid to cook the fish. Also, 2-3 minutes per side wholly inadequate to cook beautiful fresh caught thick filet. Is this the best cooking approach for beautiful bluefish? That said, sauce had a nice flavor. If you go for it, add a lot of garnish (Thai basil = nice too)
Mark
Vietnamese caramel sauce is stupid easy to make. Slowly melt some palm sugar in a heavy bottomed pot, take it off the burner then slowly add an equal amount of fish sauce and stir. Way more authentic and so much better. Use it on shrimp, chicken, duck, fish. Keeps in the fridge for weeks.
Cheryl
I read through all the notes left by previous cooks prior to cooking my fish and decided to double the sauce. I added a bit more than 1/3 cup brown sugar for twice the liquid ingredients and the sauce still thickened up and caramelized nicely. My fish was also thick in the center and took at least 2 or 3 more minutes to cook as well. Will be make this again and will look for more bluefish recipes.
Robin
I followed the recipe, but took note of Lisa's comments. I would have cut the amount of sugar anyway, but I also added some fish stock and then reduced the liquid after removing the fish. The fish took a bit longer to cook, perhaps two minutes more.
It was a big hit, happily!
Cheryl
I played fast and loose with this, but got excellent results. I cut the amount of sugar in half (thank you, lisa!), and I also subbed dark brown sugar for light (I figured it tastes more like caramel to start, right?). I made 1/2 recipe of sauce to cook 1 portion of fish, and that amount was perfect. So when I make the full recipe, I plan to double the quantity of sauce.
Tami
Can't get bluefish here so I subbed with wild-caught salmon. Tasty, but nearly impossible to follow the basting instructions since there's so little sauce. If I make again, I won't start with cooking skin side down.
Karen van Bergen
I also subbed with Irish salmon and it worked really well. I substituted the brown sugar with honey and it tasted delicious. keeping this one!
Mark
I am frankly surprised by the comments. I made the dish as written and I thought it turned out great. Yes there wasn't a lot of sauce, but there was plenty to paint the surface of the fish and then some. I imagine that if you cooked the fish separately and then poured the sauce over the fish it would still be great. Would definitely make again.
brooklynjen
I cooked as is and thought it was excellent.
T
I made this almost exactly as written with rainbow trout (just skipped the pepper), and it turned out great. Served with rice and broccoli.
Ken
Jury is still out on this one. There's an awful lot about the recipe that I like. I wish I had bought fish that wasn't so thick -- and so un-uniformly thick at that. It meant a lot more cooking time, and that affected the sauce. I should have thinned out the sauce, but the thickness of the fish was really the problem here. Will definitely try it again.
Jennifer D
This was so good! I used mahi mahi, the ingredients were the perfect amount for the size of fish I ended up with. Terrific for leftovers too. Easy!
Alice K.
Agree with earlier comment about sauce being somewhat skimpy. Even without fish sauce the sauce was tasty. Nice way to cook bluefish but not nearly as wonderful as my grandma's method which ended up in crispy fish. This was much more delicate. Although I liked it, I didn't like it enough to cook it again. Sorry.
claudiajo
I made this last night with Tilapia and it was just delicious! NO access to fresh BlueFish fillets and had to use what I had. Doubled the sauce and cut back on sugar. Made this with brown rice, used extra sauce for fish and rice. Served with roasted asparagus. This is a keeper! Will try with salmon next time.
Heather
My husband and I belong to a fish share and this week we got blue fish, the one type of fish my husband had said he doesn’t like with complaints that it is fishy with lots of bones. Well, this recipe was a big hit! He thoroughly enjoyed it. Based on comments I made more sauce but found it a bit sweeter than I needed so next time will not make as much. I also cut the sweetness with a nice squirt of lime that worked well.
susan
A 3/4 lb bluefish filet needed a total of about 10 minutes. Subbed 2 Tbsp maple syrup for brown sugar. I would double the sauce next time, even for 3/4 lb, as there was nothing left and it wasn’t easy to baste what there was over the fish as it cooked. No lemongrass so used the peel which was fine. All that being said, the result was delicious and I’d definitely do it again. The bluefish was super fresh from the local fish market. I had never had bluefish before (and I’m 75!). Over rice.
bg
Will probably need 1-2 min longer/side
Jennie
I made this with black cod, as bluefish (which I love) was not available. There was definitely enough sauce, esp. as I covered the pan while the fish cooked (for quite a bit longer than stated), which limited evaporation. It was great at first, but I found that a little went a long way. Maybe I would have preferred it more less sweet--but for now, my fish-sauce caramel curiosity has been satisfied.
Deborah
Very disappointed. "Sauce" quickly shrank and became overcooked in the pan. Had to add water twice to keep it from burning. Fish took at least 3x as long to cook. There was no remaining sauce and it just didn't taste that good. Never again.
Rebecca
Excellent and easy. As others noted, need to double or triple the sauce ingredients. I then used sake for more liquid as needed with a 1.25 lb fillet, and had nice sauce amount for each plate. I also added the scallions and jalapeno to the sauce at the end, warming them through as part of the sauce rather than as a garnish.
Ajay
We made this recipe today with the blue fish we just caught from Cape Cod Bay and then reduced the sauce from the oil after cooking the fish - it was divine Thanks for the recipe ***** Ajay
Barbara in Boston
I forgot to check comments before recipe was underway, but saw them in time to toss in a bit more soy and fish sauce to balance the sugar. Thanks for that! This was a very last-minute weeknight pick after I scored some super-fresh bluefish at the farmer’s market. I was missing ginger and all the toppings, and had to sub lemon zest strips for the lemongrass. It. Didn’t. Matter. At all. The flavors were amazing, the sauce glazed and cooked the fish perfectly. And so fast! A keeper for sure.
Sara in PA
Made this with as written, but with cod. It was a thick piece of fish so threw a cover over pan for a minute or two of the cooking. Delish! None left.
Equilibrist
Really delicious. My fillets broke into chunks while I was cooking them, so it wasn’t as pretty as Ms. Clark’s version, but still plenty tasty.
joanne
I followed the instructions below but the proportions were all wrong and it was still simultaneously too sweet and too salty. I also discovered I don’t like bluefish.
debra wise
Really liked the flavor! And lime peels worked well as a sub for lemongrass, and extra soy sauce for the fish sauce.
Bri
Made as is except I added a bit of rice wine. Let is simmer down to a syrupy texture through thick blue fillets in it cooked in no time flat . I used all the garnishes fantastic and I had enough sauce to add to rice. It’s also good with vermicelli.
Elaine Ely
Outstanding complex flavors. Identical to the "fish in clay pot" from the Four Sisters Vietnamese restaurant in Washington DC. I added two chopped shishito peppers to the caramel sauce and put the skillet into a 400 degree oven for 5 minutes following the basting to ensure the fish (I used Cobia) was completely cooked. Thanks for the tip on using lemon zest in lieu of lemongrass. Suggest doubling the sauce because it does reduce considerably. Delicious -- already a family favorite.
Frank
Tricky to adjust for a large thick blue fish fillet from Whole Foods. I had to add more liquid to get enough sauce. And I tried reducing the sugar.
Elizabeth
Please just make real Vietnamese ca kho to with caramel sauce (nuoc mau). Andrea Nguyen has a great recipe for it. And in Vietnam, people use lots of different types of fish for ca kho to, but frequently it's made with river fish and not ocean fish -- I've usually seen it with snakehead fish there, not strong, oily bluefish. This recipe is a swing and a miss and the classic dish is so easy and strong.
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