I was watching Bizarre Foods a while back and he was visiting the location where it’s manufactured. I was at the Asian Market the other day and spotted it on the shelf, so I bought a bottle. Wow is that some strong stuff!
Now I need to find a use for it. We do cook some Asian dishes and various stir fries, so I need some ideas.
Any ideas?
I think it’s a nice addition to just about any stir-fry. My standard stir-fry “sauce” is just soy sauce and fish sauce, and then I garnish with sriracha and/or hot pepper flakes afterwards. Really anything that requires soy sauce, replace a fraction of the soy sauce with fish sauce.
You can make Thai curries if you want to, any of which require fish sauce.
You can use it in non-Asian recipes too, using it as you would Worcestershire sauce or anchovies, to beef up the umami in the background. Although I personally wouldn’t do that often just because I love Worcestershire sauce.
An easy Thai curry-like dish is as follows: (it’s not particularly authentic)
1 can/jar Thai red or green curry paste
2 10 oz cans coconut milk
2-3 bell peppers, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 can bamboo shoots.
1 can sliced mushrooms
Roughly 1/2 cup fish sauce
Roughly 1/3 cup sugar.
Cook the chicken; pan fry, boil or nuke.
Take the curry paste and half a can of coconut milk, stir together, and cook in large saute pan until the oil starts to come out.
Add remainder of coconut milk. Add vegetables and meat, stir together, and cook until onions and bell peppers are cooked.
Add fish sauce and sugar, stir in thoroughly; you may want to try equal parts (1/3 cup) and vary to taste. I tend to go for 1/2 cup fish sauce and 1/3 cup sugar, but that’s me.
Cook a little while longer (5 mins). Serve with rice.
Thanks, maybe I’ll add a little the next time I make shrimp and cucumbers.
Think of it as “distilled savoury flavour”. Stew’s a bit lacking? A few shakes of fish sauce. Casserole needs beefing up? A few shakes of fish sauce. Creamy mushrooms a bit bland? A few shakes of fish sauce. And so on.
You don’t need to add a lot, just enough to bring that savoury note into whatever you’re making. We go through a small bottle every 3-4 months or so.
Nigella Lawson’s recipe for Vietnamese Chicken and Mint Salad has a fish sauce/rice wine vinegar salad dressing that’s delicious.
Thanks for that idea **lisiate **. We have been using anchovies, or anchovy paste, to add that note to some of our stews and such after seeing it done on some food shows.
I guess I’ll keep the stuff handy then. I hope I never knock the bottle over, we’d have to move out!
This recipe is a great way to dip your toe into the fish sauce pool:
Use coconut milk, about 3 stalks of lemongrass and grill over charcoal if you can help it. That recipe is good for up to 6 boneless, skinless thighs.