Canh chua

Simple beef tomato soup.

INGREDIENTS

  • Beef sirloin or beef round, thinly sliced (the pinkish “thit bo tai” in Pho or used to stir fry with common stir fry dishes like Beef with Broccoli, or beef with Gai Lan, or Bun bo xao, etc.
  • Wash and rinse the beef slices and let them dry.If you don’t like gunks in the soup (if you want a clear broth), boil some water and blanch the beef for one quick minute. Use a strainer to wash and rinse the beef.Marinate the beef slices with salt and/or fish sauce.
  • Tofu (optional), soft or medium.
  • shrimp
  • Tomato, cut into wedges
  • Yellow or white onions.
    • If you like onions, use about half of a small onion, and cut into wedges
    • If you don’t care for onion, just use half of a small onion (for about 2 servings) just to add sweetness to the broth. 
  • Salt to taste.
  • Fish sauce or soy sauce (optional).

INSTRUCTIONS

A. For a light broth.

  1. In a pot, add enough water for two servings at high heat.Throw in the onion half (or wedges) and bring the water to a boil.
  2. Throw in the tomato wedges and let it cooked to the near-firmess that you like.Reduce the heat as necessary. If you prefer a medium soft tomato, cook it at medium  low heat.If you prefer a more tender tomato, cook it at medium heat.
  3. Reduce the heat to low and season the broth to taste with salt. Add some fish sauce or soy sauce if you like.
  4. Bring the heat back to high. Once it boils again, add the beef slices, and quickly cut off the heat. Done.

B. For a hearty broth.

  1. Heat up some cooking oil in a pot.
  2. Throw in the onion wedges  (in this case, smaller wedges, or even chopped onions is better) and shear for about 5 minutes at high heat (reducing the heat if it’s too hot.)
  3. Throw in the tomato wedges and do the same, adding chopped garlic if you like.You lose the firmness, but you gain color and flavor.
  4. Add water and continue with (1) as in the first method.

C. You can combine the two methods (use half of the tomato wedges to shear,  and half later)  to have both a hearty broth and some firm tomato wedges.

D. Another variation is to batter an egg or two, season lightly with salt, and add it to the pot before step 4.

I’ve used this broth (and other variations) with Mi Goi (packaged noodle) by adding stuffs like celery, bean sprout, and various herbs like Beef seasoning, Italian herbs, parsley flakes, beef stew seasoning or Vietnamese “Bo Kho” seasoning/paste, fresh parsley, fresh dills, etc.

 

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