Yup. You got that right. Fish sauce.
It’s been about a year and half since I graduated with my master’s—when I first launched this website—and I’ll be honest, I haven’t posted anything since.
For the year that followed, I wanted to craft the perfect blog post to draw people to my site, but perfection became procrastination. I also wanted a copy editor and professional photos taken from my Canon. However, after a conversation with my fiancé the other day about hobbies and remaining committed to doing things we love, I have decided the only person stopping me from posting is me.
So this first post is going to be about fish sauce.
Ah, the potent, salty smell. The smell where by itself, it almost makes you hold your breath, but when stirred into a large pot of chicken soup—your salivary glands thank you.
For those who don’t cook regularly with fish sauce, or who didn’t grow up with a bottle in their pantry, fish sauce can be intimidating for several reasons. Many of my friends who enjoy cooking Asian food at home (pad thai, Vietnamese curry, etc.) have admitted to me that when an authentic recipe calls for fish sauce—they typically skip it, or add less than what the recipe calls for. As someone who grew up with extra bottles of fish sauce in the pantry (in case we ever ran out)—I couldn’t believe it. Why wouldn’t you use fish sauce???
After reading this blog, I hope you will feel inspired to give it a try in an upcoming recipe.
Use fish sauce…
In soup with protein-based flavors (beef, chicken, pork)
In your dipping sauces (for spring rolls, egg rolls, pour it over a bowl of rice, or noodles)
In your stir fry
As a replacement for salt
A little goes a long way. I like to think of fish sauce as a great replacement for salt. It accentuates the flavor more than what salt can do. It makes your food more savory. This past winter, I used fish sauce in my Italian sausage, tortellini soup. The ingredients were as expected—tomatoes, tortellini, spinach—with the exception of fish sauce.
Start with a teaspoon and go from there.
Stay salty.
BD
Pictured: Viet Huong Fish Sauce. Shot by Brenda Hu.