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Kho is a Vietnamese stew made with braised meat, fish sauce, and caramel sauce. It is traditionally cooked in a clay pot and served with rice or baguette. Variations include bo kho (beef), ca kho (fish), and ga kho (chicken).
Kho is a type of stew from the Southeast Asian country of Vietnam, mainly characterized by its braised cooking method, reddish-brown appearance, and caramel-fish sauce base. The word kho, pronounced “kaw,” is actually a verb meaning to braise in Vietnamese, or to simmer or stew. The dish is traditionally cooked in a clay pot called noi dat and is one of the staples of Vietnamese cuisine.
The traditional ingredients used to make the stew are typically cubed meat, lemon grass, fish sauce, bay leaves, aniseed flowering plant, curry powder, carrots, tomatoes, onions, oil, sugar, salt and water. Cilantro herb, which is better known in the Western world as cilantro, is usually added to the dish when it’s ready for garnish, and a lime or two can be squeezed in for extra flavor as well. Other optional ingredients include bay leaves, garlic and cinnamon.
Kho is often named based on the type of meat used to prepare it. The most popular variation is bo kho, which means the stew is made with beef. Another popular type of dish is kho, which refers to the dish consisting of caramelised braised pork belly and egg. Other variations include ca kho, which incorporates fish; and ga kho, which uses chicken.
Although kho is traditionally made in clay pots, most Vietnamese today use metal pans. They also add a caramelised sugar based sauce to darken the color and enhance the flavor of the dish. The caramel sauce is usually called nuoc mau, pronounced “nook mao,” which means colored water. In northern Vietnam, however, it is more commonly referred to as nuoc hang, pronounced “nook hahng,” which means water merchandising due to street vendors who use it to enhance the appearance of the food items they sell.
Kho is one of the traditional food items of Vietnamese cuisine, along with steamed rice and stir-fry. While usually eaten with rice, the dish can also be eaten with baguette, a long, thin loaf that represents a remnant of Vietnam’s colonial past under France from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. Since the soup’s name is a verb, it is commonly used as such. So, someone saying it stands for “kho” for something may mean that the person is going to cook a caramel-based dish, or braise or simmer something in the kitchen.
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