Monday 12 March 2012

Fish sauce




Keep your fish sauce in the fridge – this is controversial since many sites say that it will keep fine in the cupboard for up to 2 years.  A Thai chef however advised me to keep it in the fridge for superior flavour so that is what I do.  I suspect those that don’t keep it in the fridge probably cook with it often enough that the bottles are used up quickly enough.  I do think the small bottles are a better bet than the big ones if you aren’t cooking South East Asian dishes all the time.

I do suggest you try to buy one that is made in Thailand as opposed to Vietnam.

Don’t worry that the end product will smell “fishy” – it won’t.  Fish Sauce is a wonderful ingredient without which Thai food just will not taste authentic. You can also use it instead of salt in dipping sauces for meat or salads.  I will mix a splosh of it with tomato and/or chilli sauce, sometimes also with a splash of soy sauce and lemon juice.  If you don’t include the tomato sauce you will need a soupcon of palm sugar or ordinary sugar for balance.  Yum and not full of empty calories either.


You might also be interested in this post on  Thai curry.  If so, click here

13 comments:

  1. Thanks Carole. Very informative. Appreciate the heads up on this. Thanks for your visit. Come back. I will visit here too.

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  2. I've had Thai food but I dont know if I've ever had fish sauce. I suppose I must have in the food. I've never fixed it myself, so I never had the need for it. I don't think it's used in the Indonesion kitchen which we are more familiar with here in the Netherlands.

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  3. I just bought one from Thailand ("Squid" brand), I like it...it's a bit stronger than the Tiparos (also Thai) I usually use.

    I refrigerate mine as well, I just don't go through a bottle fast enough. :)

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    1. Thanks so much for stopping by to comment.

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  4. Thanks for stopping by to let me know of your post, I do keep mine in the fridge. I don't think it's very pungent though as others have said fish sauce is. Maybe it's the brand, my bottle is Thai Kitchen. It's almost out, so I'd like to find a more authentic kind.

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  5. I know it takes time to comment, so thank ou very much.

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  6. Can't get enough of the stuff!

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  7. And likewise an interesting post from you on the same topic! I often use mushroom soya sauce and a combo of mushroom ketchup and hendersons relish to mimic the deep saltiness of fish sauce when doing veggie/vegan dishes but of course nothing can quite replace it!

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    1. Thanks, Becka. I know it takes time to comment. Interesting mixture of ketchup and relish.

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  8. Thanks for visiting our blog and for your comment on the stew recipe! -Julie

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