Why it works: Coconut and fish sauce work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 362 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
The recipe
serves 4Ingredients
Contains: milk, peanut, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare the noodles
Soak the vermicelli in boiling water for 5 minutes to soften it, drain well.
Make the soup
Heat the cooking oil in a large, heavy-based pan and cook the ginger, chili and spring onion for 3 minutes or until golden.
Stir in the coconut milk, fish sauce and tomato paste, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the fish, ham and snake beans and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the fish is tender.
Serve
Divide the vermicelli among four bowls and top with bean sprouts and mint.
Spoon the soup into the bowls and sprinkle with peanuts.
Serve while hot.
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Coconut + fish saucetop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together362 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Rice + coconuttop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,048 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
-
Rice + milktop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together7,354 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + tomatotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,990 recipes
Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Ginger + coconuttop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,168 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Coconut milk
- Adds richness and body to the broth, softening the spice and making it creamy.
- Firm white fish fillets
- Provides the main protein, turning tender as it simmers in the broth.
- Ham steaks
- Adds savoury, salty flavour that enriches the soup.
- Tomato paste
- Adds concentrated savoury depth and a little acidity to the broth.
- Dried rice vermicelli
- Forms the noodle base that soaks up the soup and gives the bowl its body.
The step that matters
Simmering the fish. Fish cooks quickly and becomes dry and rubbery if overcooked, so simmer gently only until it is just tender and flakes easily.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, ginger, coconut, milk, fish sauce, tomato, fish):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Carrotbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, ginger, coconut, milk, fish sauce, tomato, fish. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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