Sour soup with snakehead fish and “dien dien” flower (Sesbania sesban)

The first time I saw "Dien Dien" flower, when I was a little boy.

My mom cooked the sour soup with "dien dien" flower. It was very nice.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I love "dien dien" flower very much.

IT'S MY CHILDHOOD.

Sour soup with “dien dien” flower and snakehead fish

Ingredients:

• 500 gr “dien dien” flower
• 500 gr snakehead fish (a whole fish)
• 50 gr tamarind pulp
• Rice paddy herd, sawtooth herb, red chili, garlic, salt, fish sauce, sugar

This picture is only for illustration purpose.

Directions:

1. Cleaning fish, cutting into pieces, keeping fish head. “Dien dien” flower only keep in blossom, clean it.
2. Red chili cut into thin slices.
3. Cook in 4 cups of water. Add tamarind pulp, cook to dissolve it. Add 2 tsp salt, 2 tsp sugar, 1 tbsp fish sauce. And add snakehead fish, cook just until just tender. Adjust the seasonings to taste.
4. Chop the garlic, fry it.
5. Add “dien dien” flower into bowl, add fish over the “dien dien” flower. Put boiling soup into bowl. Sprinkle slices of red chili and one kind of chopped herb. Served in fish sauce.

Beside snakehead fish, we can use "ca linh", "ca bong lau" (pangasius krempfi) to cook this sour soup.

This sour soup can also be eaten with rice or bún (thin rice noodles).