Coconut tilapia noodle bowl

Leftovers. The original recipe was saucier.

Greetings from quarantine! Since this pandemic is forcing us all to find new things to do at home, and ways to stay connected remotely, I am reactivating my food blog after a 6(!) year hiatus.

The pandemic has affected different people in different ways, but for me, one of the biggest changes is how much I am cooking! Prior to the pandemic, I probably cooked 2-3 times a week - one big cooking night to make food for a week's worth of lunches, and maybe one more dinner throughout the week. Breakfast was cereal and almond milk, grabbed on the go at work. Otherwise, I ate out - a lot. Most socializing happened over a meal, so even the nights I wasn't rushing from work to an evening activity, I was probably meeting a friend for food instead. Now, however, trying to minimize my trips out of the house means that I'm cooking pretty well every meal. In the three weeks that I've been self-isolating, I've had a total of two take-out meals. My boyfriend has lovingly cooked another 5 or 6. Otherwise, it's been me, 3-4 times a day, trying to figure out what I can make that's exciting.

Up until today, quarantine cooking has mostly involved a lot of soups, including my favourite yam-coconut-lentil soup, and a semi-successful attempt at the Burgoo butternut squash soup. I've also made a lot of tuna melts and breakfast sandwiches, along with many variations on pasta. I've also been keeping my cooking fairly safe - for the purposes of the pandemic, I have moved in with my boyfriend, which means that any cooking failures affect a second person's dinner as well - high stakes! And, of course, the other complicating factor to pandemic factor is that I can't just whip out to the store to pick up an ingredient I'm missing - we're being strongly encouraged to shop only once a week. I'm used to shopping on an as-needed basis - picking a recipe, going to the store, and buying just enough for that recipe - so it's an adjustment to have to cook from the basis of "what do I actually have in the fridge?" That tends to result in a lot of repetitive meals.

However, it's been three weeks, and a person can only eat so many tuna melts. I've also had time to build up my ingredient stores, and I've been seriously missing Vietnamese and Thai cuisine – two of my go-tos for eating out, but not cuisines I'm super-skilled at cooking. Add in some bok choi that needed using up, and a night of experimental cooking was fated.

Before I get to the recipe (and I promise, I will eventually get there), some background on the inspiration for this dish. Last fall, I made a couple of trips to The Union, a restaurant in Chinatown focusing on Asian fusion. I really enjoy their "Cha Ca Hanoi", which they make as a sour-and-spicy coconut milk soup with "cod, turmeric chili coconut milk, baby bok choy, vermicelli, nuoc cham, fresh herbs, scallions". As best as I can tell, this dish was inspired by a famous Hanoi tumeric-and-dill fish dish; however, they had very clearly modified it, because as best as I can tell, the original isn't a soup (I could be wrong, though, not having tried it myself when actually in Hanoi). And I was going to modify it further, since I didn't have all the ingredients, and also because I don't actually like dill. What I created is, I think, something in between the traditional hanoi fish and a Malayisan laska, with a fair amount of substitution to allow for a mostly-Western pantry. So I don't even really know what to call it, but I am pleased to say that it was delicious, and very comforting. My boyfriend gave it two thumbs up. And then strongly encouraged me to post it to my food blog. So, here we are!

Coconut tilapia noodle bowl

The fish marinade is taken from Epicurious' recipe for Hanoi Grilled Tumeric Fish with Dill and Onion (minus the dill). I then tried to parallel the flavouring in the broth as well.

Fish:

• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/2 tablespoon fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons finely diced shallots [I used finely chopped onion instead]
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3 fillets of tilapia (or any other white fish; I think basa, cod or catfish is more traditional)

Broth:

• Remainder of the onion, sliced thin
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1+ tablespoon grated ginger
• 4 baby bok choy, separated: stems sliced, leaves chopped
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (or any kind of chili, if you have one on hand)
• 3+ tablespoons fish sauce
• Juice + zest of 1 1/2 lemons if you have limes, I'd recommend using limes instead!)
• 150g rice stick noodles (~1/4 of a bag) - think phở or pad thai size
• ~2 cups water

Instructions:

1. Mix all marinade ingredients together. Add fish and mix in a freezer bag. Refrigerate while preparing the rest of the ingredients. (The original recipe I used recommends not to marinate >30 minutes because it gets too salty. I don't disagree.)
2. Thinly slice the rest of the onion. Heat a pan over medium heat, and add oil of choice (I used coconut). Add onions and sauté until starting to soften
3. Add garlic, grated ginger, and sliced bok choy stems. Continue to sauté. If needed, add water (a little at a time) to help the bok choy steam a bit
4. Add tumeric, stir to mix with the veggies, and cook for another 1-2 minutes, until veggies are soft and dark yellow.
5. Add the coconut milk, red pepper flakes, chopped bok choy leaves, fish sauce, all zest and ~2/3 of the lemon/lime juice. Simmer until the boy choy leaves have wilted.
6. Taste and adjust flavours - add more fish sauce and/or lemon/lime juice to taste.
7. Add rice sticks, and ~2 cups of water. Cover the pan and let the noodles cook/steam. (Note: you could also cook the noodles separately in boiling water and add cooked noodles to the sauce. If you do that, omit the water.)
8. Meanwhile, heat a separate pan over medium-high heat.
9. Remove fish from marinade. Discard marinade. Pat fish with paper towel to remove excess marinade from the fish surface.
10. When the pan is hot, add oil of choice and fish. Cook 3-4 minutes/side, until the fish is cooked through.
11. Break the cooked fish into chunks, and mix into the broth and noodle mixture.
12. Eat and enjoy!

Things I would do differently next time, if I planned ahead to have the ingredients on hand:

• Use shallots instead of onion in the marinade
• Use lime juice and zest instead of, or in combination with, lemon
• For extra flavour and greenery, add chopped green onions when adding the bok choy, and add lots of cilantro at the end