Bún Mắm

Name: Bún Mắm
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Ingredients: 150 g Mắm cá linh or mắm cá sặc (fermented fish); 500 g Pork bones; 2.5 L Water; 4 stalks Lemongrass, bruised; 300 g Pork belly, boiled and sliced; 300 g Prawns, peeled; 200 g Squid, scored and cut; 2 Asian aubergines, cut into batons; 5 / 5 Shallots and garlic, chopped; 2 tbsp Sugar; 1 tbsp Chilli paste; 600 g Fresh rice vermicelli (bún); 400 g Water-lily stems, banana blossom, bean sprouts, herbs; 2 Limes

The Mekong Delta's fermented fish noodle soup — mắm melted into stock and strained, loaded with prawn, squid, pork belly and aubergine, and eaten with a plate of raw water-lily stems.

Source

Recipe by Southern Vietnamese home kitchens · 🏺 Traditional · Saigon and Mekong Delta home cooking — sweeter, coconut-led, served with herbs by the armful

Mekong Delta · fermented fish noodle soup — An ownerless regional dish, so no cook is credited. The cited article confirms bún mắm as a Vietnamese vermicelli soup made from fermented fish called mắm, sometimes called Vietnamese gumbo. The stock ratio, the compulsory sieving step, the timings and the raw-vegetable note are this book's own.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

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Helen's Recipes (Vietnamese Food)Cô Ba Bình Dương Manny_blog

⏱ 90 min🍽 4 servings🔥 520 kcal🇻🇳 Vietnam🌶️🌶️

Dairy-free

Steps

Simmer the pork bones in the water for 45 minutes, skimming, to make a clear stock.
In a separate pan, simmer the mắm with 500 ml of the stock for 15 minutes until the fish falls apart, then pour it through a fine sieve, pressing.
💡 Sieve it, always. Unstrained mắm leaves bones and scales in the bowl, and that single step is the difference between the restaurant version and an unpleasant surprise.
Fry the shallots and garlic until golden, add the lemongrass, then the strained mắm liquid and the rest of the stock. Season with sugar and chilli paste.
Simmer 20 minutes, then add the aubergine and cook 8 minutes until soft.
Poach the prawns and squid in the broth for 2 minutes at the very end.
Put noodles in each bowl, arrange the pork, prawns, squid and aubergine on top, and ladle the broth over.
Serve with the raw vegetable plate and lime, and let people pile them in.

💡 Tips

It smells strong before it tastes good — that is fermentation doing its job, and it settles the moment lime and herbs go in. Cook it with a window open the first time.
The raw vegetables are not a garnish. Half the bowl is meant to be crunchy and cold against a broth this heavy, and Vietnamese tables serve them by the armful.