Fish Sauce - What is fish sauce?

Fish Sauce

Fish Sauce

Fish Sauce. The mere mention of this stuff arouses fear in many people's hearts. It is an incredibly pungent, fishy concentrated liquid that even southeast Asians handle carefully. A spilled bottle will undoubtedly leave a very stinky lasting impression. Like a lot of Asian foods in the US, this powerful flavor suffers from the unfortunate stigma of powerhouse "fish farming", just imagine that it was called "magical umami liquid gold", because that's exactly what the southeast is Is for the greater part. Asia!

Luckily for us, American home chefs and culinary experts are waking up to the taste enhancing qualities of fish sauce. Chefs from Spanish, Mexican and American restaurants have experimented with fish sauce for their Ummi Superpower. From anything to potas bravas, salsa verde, poblano sauce, barbeque or even bloody cocktails, its power to change flavor is too much for anyone to resist, for anyone who knows no one.

Read more: Fish Sauce - What is fish sauce?

For examples of dishes where fish sauce is used prominently, check my recipes for egg rolls, and noodle bowls such as Ban Thit Luong.

What is fish sauce made of?

In its purest form, modern fish sauces only contain anchovies and sea salt as ingredients. Traditionally, anchovies dissolve in sea salt and are packed in barrels where they are left to ferment. Natural bacteria then smash the fish with magical alchemy (aka fermentation), transforming it into a super funky, glowing liquid. It may take up to months or two years to fully ferment. The raw temperature is processed at room temperature, retaining all of its enzymes and omega-3 fatty acids.

As the story goes along with mass-produced products, companies begin to deviate from the original formulation as they aim to cut costs. Lower quality products tend to have more filler or growth such as water, sugar, or other flavorings. The exception is of course the vegetarian option, which completely replaces the anchor. Here is a list of popular brands and their ingredients:

• Red Boat Premium Fish Sauce - Anchovies, Sea Salt
• Premium Anchovy Fish Sauce Gold - Anchovies, Sea Salt
• "Flying Lion" Vietnamese Style Fish Sauce - anchovy extract, water, salt, fructose and hydrolyzed vegetable protein
• Three Krebs brand fish sauce - anchovy extracts, water, salt, fructose and hydrolyzed vegetable proteins
• Thai Kitchen Sauce Fish - anchovy extracts, salt, sugar
• Vegetarian Fish Sauce - organic seaweed, pineapple extracts, rice wine, vinegar and other ingredients
• Golden Boy Brand Fish Sauce - Anchovy, Salt and Sugar
• BLIS Barrel Barrel AZ Fish Sauce - Fresh Kale Anchovy, Sea Salt

How and where is fish sauce used?

Although it was originally invented in China 2300 years ago, fish sauce traveled south and evolved to become a staple in Southeast Asian countries. You will find different versions in Indonesia, Burma, Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. It is essential for Vietnamese and Thai dishes in the form of soy sauce, the northern neighbor is for China, Japan and Korea. In other words, it is similar to salt in American kitchens. Whether it is used directly from the bottle for cooking or mixed with other ingredients to make various dipping sauces, its use varies between different countries.

If you have pad thai, pho, egg rolls or vermicelli noodle salad, you definitely had fish sauce in one form or another. Let's take a look at various methods that are used in different cuisines.

Vietnamese Fish Sauce: Nook Mam

At the Viet Nam Culture Foundation, Trọn Ngietc Thêm wrote, "For Vietnamese people, food without fish sauce is considered incomplete." It is so prevalent in Vietnamese cuisine that you will find a small bottle of fish in place of every dining table. Salt. Nuak mam, as it is known in Vietnamese, is the fundamental building block of Vietnamese food. Salt is used both as a main source of cooking and as a spice for dipping, there are some dishes that exist without it.

Here are some common Vietnamese dishes that feature fish sauce as a primary ingredient:

• Vietnamese dipping sauce (my recipe!)
• Vietnamese Pork Chops
• Vietnamese shrimp summer rolls
• Grilled Chicken Wings

Nuok Cham

The Central Vietnam region known as Hue is known for its clever use of nozzle mam. As the country's former royal capital, Hue has a rich culinary history of elaborate, labor-intensive cuisines that are very different from other regions. Here, reportedly thirty different types of nuom cham, a needle sauce, which is noak mam.

Nuoc cham is a Swiss Army knife of Vietnamese sauce. By mixing nuke mame with sugar and acid (usually lime), it works through salting and cutting through fried foods. In a variety of gokharu dishes (vermicelli rice noodle bowls), it serves as a vinaigret-type dressing. For cha gio (agarole) or goi cuon (spring roll), it is a tangy needle sauce.

It is not really an exaggeration that fish sauce is in almost every Vietnamese dish. It is poetically synonymous with Vietnamese identity. Author Tham proposes that as rice represents the earth, nouche mam is a symbol of water because it is made up of two "gifts of the sea": langar and salt. For the Vietnamese people, nuke mam as water is essential in the balance of nature.

Thai Fish Sauce: Moist Pla

Nama pla literally means "fish water". It is similar to the Vietnamese version, except that it is traditionally fermented in large earthenware jars rather than wooden barrels. Kasma Loha-unchit of Thai Food and Travel states that the high-quality moist plate has a "pleasant aroma of the sea, is not an overly fishy fish, and should not be overly salty."

Like Nuom Mam in Vietnam, Nam Playa is the cornerstone of Thai cuisine. It is used in place of salt, also acts as a pickle and umimi-enhancing agent. Loha-Achint recommends brands Ch Tarang and Golden Boy for their purity and taste.

Here is just the tip of the iceberg of Thai cuisine, with the name plate:

• Pad thai
• Thai Red Curry
• Thai Beef with Basil and Chili
• My grandmother and the other cook's kitchen

Back in my grandmother's kitchen, she would mix fish sauce in pasta sauce for a secret umi kick that a famous chef would later catch. Whether you consider this holy or a stroke of genius, you cannot argue with the resulting health benefits of reducing 10-25% of sodium chloride without losing the perceived umami and salt! For those looking at their sodium intake, food and wine suggest using fish sauce as a low-sodium mitigator for salt.

What is the best fish sauce?

Controversially, the best fish sauce in Vietnam and probably the world, is made on the island of Phu Quoc, off the coast of Vietnam. The anchovies caught along the 22-island archipelago are salted and fermented for a year in large wooden vats. This sauce is so well liked that the name "Phu Quoc" can only be used for sauces that are actually on the island, according to the protected designation of the original status assigned to it by the European Union.

The following brands exclusively use fish from Phu Quoc:

• Phu Quoc
• Red Boat - 40 degrees North

A flying lion

The pure taste of this fish sauce has been attributed to the abundant water from Fu Kwaok, a plankton, a favorite food of anchovies. However, there are many imitators. Some brands dilute fish sauce with seawater. The highest quality brand is labeled as 43g / L. This number decreases as the sauce is further diluted with sea water (range: 40, 30, 20 and finally 15 g / L). On Phu Kwok, the first run, when Watts is first drained, is considered the best.

Fish sauce options

I have options for some of the best tasting fish sauces from vegetarian Vietnamese restaurants that have their own on this. Keep in mind that the choices of fish sauce are of that option only. But there is no one for a replacement for real sauces made with nothing anchovies, even though they are still delicious in themselves.

If you are a vegetarian, vegan or would just use something else, I have seen others as an alternative to fish sauce with:

• Soy sauce
• Shaking hoisin and miso sauce
• Varsheshire sauce
• Vegetarian "Fish" Sauce

How is a fish sauce made?

Making Homemade Fish Sauce is a great way to make sure you know exactly what's in it, although in terms of the time invested, I'm not sure it's worth it for most people. In addition, you can skip the additives and preservatives found in many off-the-shelf brands. However, this is not for the faint of heart. It has a pungent odor, but once it is fermented it packs a punch that tastes similar to manufactured fish sauce.

The following recipe, from dietitian Anne Guillot, takes 15 minutes of preparation and makes a bottle. It gives us an idea of ​​how you can make it, if you are so ambitious.

Material:

• Small anchovies (whole) - 1.5 lb.
• Sea salt - 3 tablespoons
• Water - 2 cups
• Garlic - 2 cloves (mashed)
• Bay Leaves (Laminate) - 2
• Black pepper Black pepper - 1 teaspoon

Instructions:

Toss the fish in salt and store it in a mason jar. Press the fish down into the jar and add the remaining ingredients. Add more water if needed to cover the fish. Leave one inch of space under the jar lid, then cover tightly and ferment at room temperature for three days. After that, transfer the jar to the fridge. After a few weeks, you can take it out of the fridge and strain it. Refrigerate once more liquid liquid and fish sauce in a bottle. After six to eight months, the sauce is ready to use and should appear clear and dark.

Again please note that the sight and smell of the fermentation process can be very difficult for some people to take. When you use it, one or two tablespoons should suffice. You may not have to add as much salt to your homemade fish sauce as store brands.

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