Vaughn Chung transform a humble can of sardines into a delicious dish

As thousands of Australians self-isolate themselves amid the coronavirus pandemic, many are running out of options on what to cook.

But home cook Vaughn Chung has shared his very simple canned food recipe after being inspired by his mother’s classic home cooked meal.

Using staples from the pantry and fridge, the home cook transformed a humble 75 cent can of sardines into a delicious, flavourful dish. 

‘Since some of us are self isolating or quarantined, I wanted to share a dish my mother made for me growing up,’ he wrote on Facebook.

‘We had very little money and my parents were Vietnam war refugees. Life was always difficult for them, but they did an amazing job feeding us, despite much of it being canned foods and cheap yet fresh ingredients.

‘This is canned sardines that’s been slow simmered with onion, shallots, spring onion and topped with a fried egg over a bed of jasmine rice.

‘The secret? Fish sauce. Oh, and like five cloves of garlic. It’s a very nostalgic and comforting meal, so I hope you guys give this a shot if you’re running out of ideas.’

His recipe was shared in an Australian Facebook group called Subtle Asian Traits, and has since been ‘liked’ more than 4,900 times.

The recipe included canned sardines with tomato sauce, which costs just 75 cents at supermarkets, green onions, one medium brown onion, shallot, four to five cloves of garlic and fish sauce.

He slowly simmered canned sardines in a pot before serving the dish on rice, topped with a fried egg. 

‘Desired amount of fish sauce, but less is more. I use about a little over a teaspoon,’ Vaughn said.

On medium high heat, saute the finely chopped onion, shallots and garlic with olive or vegetable oil.

Next, pour the sardines into the pot but he urged not to toss the can out just yet.

‘You can poke holes into the fish with a tooth pick to help it adhere to the sauce and minimise the dryness. If not, you can still skip this step and it will still be tasty,’ he said.

‘Bring it to a boil and leave it on low heat. Fill the can about a third of the way through in volume with water and mix half a tablespoon of corn or potato starch.

‘Immediately add the starch water into the pan to help the sauce thicken. I say another five to seven minutes, but up to you on how caramelised you’d like it.

‘Season to taste with fish sauce or salt. Freshly cracked pepper or ground pepper over the fish. You can quickly fry eggs on the side and top it on the fish with rice. Voila! Hope y’all dig it.’

The man said his simple yet delicious dish was inspired by his mother’s home cooked meal

Many nostalgic people quickly responded to his post, saying their parents cooked a similar meal when they were growing up.

‘My dad makes this too! Add a squeeze of lemon before serving, we were really struggling when I was younger because home loan repayments and kids made it so hard for them to find extra money for food,’ one woman said. 

‘Let alone clothes and toys looking back I’m grateful they always put us kids first and made sure our bellies were full. Even though we never got brand new clothes and wore the same shoes to school for two to three years.’

A second person said: ‘My mum used to make something like this too. fried sardines and onions and eggs on rice, is always an easy dish and comfortable.’

Others said they were going to attempt making the dish after their parents stocked up on canned sardines amid the outbreak.

‘My mum literally bought a pack of canned sardines because of quarantine concerns. I will probably be eating this exact dish sooner rather than later LOL,’ one said.

A second person said: ‘My mum gave me a few tins of canned sardines and I couldn’t figure out what to do with them (besides snack with toast, the classic) Thank you!’