Olives for El Vis-O

Deep olive flavor:

Fusilli with Fresh Tomato and Olive Sauce

(I accidentally left out the vinegar, and it turned out fine.)

A favorite Vietnamese recipe

Here's my current favorite recipe:

Catfish in Caramel Sauce

Instead of using the linked recipe for caramel sauce, I use the following recipe: Put 1/3 cup sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat for several minutes (maybe about 4-5 minutes?) until the sugar has completely dissolved and turned dark brown. Add 1/4 cup fish sauce and stir until thoroughly combined. Allow to cool before using. The caramel will solidify as it cools. This caramel sauce recipe is from Nicole Routhier's The Foods of Vietnam.

To use the sauce in the above recipe, after the preliminary 2-3 minute cooking of the catfish, transfer the fish to the saucepan with the caramel and continue cooking as in the recipe; don't add the additional fish sauce (the recipe doesn't even indicate how much you're supposed to add anyway!). The last time I made this catfish, I also omitted the chicken stock, and the recipe turned out pretty well without it.

For a simple meal, I like to serve this with jasmine rice and an accompaniment of sliced cucumbers or boiled green beans.