Cá Kho (Fish With Coconut Caramel)

At Sap Sua in Denver, one of our Best New Restaurants of 2024, chef and co-owner Ni Nguyen wanted to include a version of his favorite Vietnamese meal, cá kho (fish braised in a clay pot), to the menu. Needing a precise approach so the dish could be recreated nightly by the restaurant's cooks, Nguyen and his team eventually settled on a slightly different technique–the dark, glossy sauce is made separately, affording greater control and precision. Deeply savory with a slight sweetness from the coconut water, this dish is weeknight-fancy cooking at its best. Sap Sua uses hamachi collars, but salmon fillets are a more home-cook-friendly stand-in. At the restaurant the dish is topped with cốm dep—delicate flakes of young sticky rice. Ordinary crispy rice cereal proves to be a worthy, restaurant-approved substitute. —Shilpa Uskokovic, senior test kitchen editor