Cập nhật thông tin chi tiết về The Story Of Fish Sauce mới nhất trên website Misshutech.com. Hy vọng nội dung bài viết sẽ đáp ứng được nhu cầu của bạn, chúng tôi sẽ thường xuyên cập nhật mới nội dung để bạn nhận được thông tin nhanh chóng và chính xác nhất.
I had so much fun writing this story – from trekking all over Vietnam to sampling various types of fish sauces to getting to talk to people I’ve long admired. One of those people is the one and only Andrea Nguyen of the blog Viet World Kitchen, my indispensable resource for all things related to Vietnamese food! Not only did I learn all about fish sauce from some of Andrea’s posts, I also had the great privilege of talking with her about the brands she recommends, which you can find out more about here. Thanks so much, Andrea!
Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce
1 part fish sauce 1 part lime juice and/or distilled white vinegar 1 part sugar 2 parts water garlic, minced Thai bird chilis, thinly sliced grated carrot for garnish
You can make this the traditional way by pounding garlic, chili, and sugar with a mortar and pestle until the mixture forms a thick paste, then mixing in the liquids. Or you can also use the following method. [Update: I have found that pounding makes such a difference in taste that it is the only way I make nuoc cham now! The method releases all the garlic and chili juices and makes for a sauce tasty enough to drink. Just kidding… kinda. 🙂 The sugar provides some friction, to make pounding easier. ]
Combine fish sauce and lime juice in a bowl. Heat the sugar and some of the water on the stove or in the microwave and stir until the sugar dissolves. Let this cool and combine with the fish sauce, lime, and the rest of the water. Taste and adjust to your liking, adding more sugar for sweetness, lime for sourness, or fish sauce for saltiness. Add minced garlic, slices of Thai bird chilis, and, for garnish, a few shreds of grated carrot.
This tastes best made fresh with lime, garlic, and chili. But the sauce will keep much longer (a month or more in the refrigerator) if you make it with vinegar and leave out the garlic, chili, and carrot until serving. Just freshen with a bit of lime juice when you’re ready to use.
Vegan Vietnamese Fish Dipping Sauce
There’s no way around it-you can’t do Vietnamese food without nước mắm (fish sauce). It’s the main base in nước chấm, a light dipping sauce that accompanies most Vietnamese dishes. You’d think this would be an issue for Vietnamese vegans and vegetarians, but it’s actually the easiest thing, especially for those of us who grew up around the spiritual traditions of vegetarianism.
Continuing with #VeganMofo18 (I’m behind in prompts but that’s ok), I’ve been developing a few recipes inspired by my family, starting with this post! I could dedicate another post to fish sauce itself (and the vegan version), but today we’re talking about nước mắm chấm chay, or vegan fish dipping sauce. “Vegan fish sauce?!” Is this a disrespectful departure from my own culture? Before continuing, I want to note that this concept is nothing new. What kind of sauce do you think Vietnamese Buddhist temples have been using for generations, for vegetarian rice and vermicelli dishes, during ngày chay (vegetarian fasting days)? Who else loves temple food? 🙂
Ngày chay: Chay means vegetarian in Vietnamese. Ngày chay means vegetarian fasting days, as per Buddhist practice, which can vary by tradition. Typically, those who adhere to this will practice vegetarianism on certain days, including holidays such as Lunar New Year, and on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar calendar. Some people practice a vegetarian fast 6-10 days a month. And there are others, like my grandma, who practice yearlong vegetarianism as part of their spiritual development.
While vegetarianism is an important part of Buddhism, and integral to my cultural experience, it should be noted that not everyone in Vietnam is Buddhist, and not all Buddhists adhere to vegetarianism. Not everyone in my family is strictly Buddhist (including myself), but spiritual vegetarianism is definitely a respected tradition that played a large part of my upbringing. When practicing Buddhist vegetarianism, one avoids meat, fish, and eggs (and sometimes onions and garlic).
The word for vegan in Vietnamese would be thuần chay, but this phrase is often unnecessary in my family, as we just refer to vegan dishes as chay. This is because most vegetarian dishes already exclude eggs, and dairy is rarely used in Vietnamese cooking. It depends on where you are though-these things are established and understood in my family, but it may be less obvious in other settings.
My family and I make this vibrant sauce all the time without measuring or writing anything down. Soon, you too, can whip this up with your eyes closed. In my family, we typically just refer to this sauce as “nước mắm (chay)” because “nước mắm chấm (chay)” is kind of a mouthful! It’s absolutely essential for so many Vietnamese dishes, so I figured it’d be a great reference recipe to share, before sharing more Viet recipes on the blog, including:
+ vermicelli bowls of several varieties + spring rolls + broken rice + dumplings + various marinades and dressings + SO MANY MORE DISHES
Forget the generic weak sauce you might find at restaurants-this homemade sauce beats all. The perfect nước mắm chấm is a complex balance of sweet and savory, sharp garlic, and spice, all brightened by the tartness of fresh lime juice. It’s a fusion of umami that is quintessentially Vietnamese, with flavors that are bold and delicate at the same time.
Every family has their own preference of flavor ratios, and this is mine. Use the following as a reference point, and turn this sauce into your own!
Vegan Vietnamese Fish Dipping Sauce Nước Mắm Chấm Chaymakes about 2 cups of sauce Ingredients:
Time: 10 minutes
Method:
3 medium garlic cloves
2 small Thai chili peppers, minced (or to your taste!)*
1/2 cup lime juice (about 2 medium limes)
1.5 cups coconut water**
3 tablespoons sugar***
1 1/2 teaspoons Himalayan sea salt
Using a mortar and pestle, finely crush the garlic and chili peppers. Add a dash of lime juice and a dash of salt while crushing, as it helps give the mortar and pestle some abrasiveness, speeding up the process. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, you can also mince the garlic and chili peppers.
Combine the crushed garlic and chili with the other ingredients, in a bowl or jar, and stir well. Adjust the flavors until everything is well balanced to you. I often end up making adjustments, based on what’s available, or the amount I want to make.
Enjoy as a dipping sauce for springrolls, eggrolls, or dumplings, or drench your vermicelli bowls in it! This sauce will keep for up to a month.
Notes:
*If you don’t have Thai chili peppers on hand, you can also substitute a tablespoon or so of chili garlic paste! I do this frequently when I forget to pick up the fresh chilis.
**My favorite is Harmless Harvest, but the Chaokoh brand at the Asian store is also great! Be sure not to get coconut water with added sweeteners or artificial preservatives, as this will negatively affect the taste. You can also choose to use water, but note that you’ll need to adjust the flavors (adding more sweetness). If using water, it also won’t keep as long, a couple weeks, in comparison to a month with the coconut water.
***You can use any sweetener of your choosing; I frequently use maple syrup as well. Brown sugar or coconut sugar will also work, and these will result in a darker sauce, with more caramel notes. Adjust to your preference.
To Where Fish Sauce Is Made
This was not my first time visiting a fish sauce village, however during this trip I felt a much deeper sentiment and connection because, unbelievably, this is the first and brand new certified fish sauce brand in Danang.
Nam O is a small village by Danang Bay, and were known for hundreds of years for its fishing and trading activities, along with their famous fish sauce. From the 18th century, this village also became famous for its large fire cracker industry, which emerged from the Civil War in Vietnam during the late Le dynasty. However, when the manufacturing and trading of firecracker became illegal in Vietnam due to safety problems, Nam O is now only known as the village of fish sauce. Over the years, despite of Danang’s fast expanding tourism industry, Nam O remains quiet and humble in the northern part of the city, among other modest households, looking nowhere close to its glorious past.
The famous “fish sauce factory” that we were heading to was actually just the front and back yards of a fish sauce maker in the village. After a long, narrow alley packed with colorfully painted houses, we were led to the house, and immediately surprised by dozens of closed jars tall up to 1 meter all lay together, covering a majority of the family’s big front yard. The owner explained to us: “These are the containers of pure fish and salt mixture, what would later get filtered to become fish sauce. In order to create the sauce, the family has to select the freshest fish, usually anchovies, and mix them with the right ratio of sea salt. The mixture then gets shielded from daylight by different methods, and kept still for at least 3 months. After the mixture is well fermented, it will get filtered through several cloth layers in order to collect the transparent golden amber color sauce that is “nước mắm”, or fish sauce. The fish sauce collected after the first filter is called “nước một”. This is the one with highest nutrition values, comparing to the fish sauce collected from the second and even third filter process. This place proudly sells only the first press fish sauce with the nitrogen level up to 40N.
Mentioned in the article:
Watch my video about traditional fish sauce production here:
Bản dịch tiếng Việt:
Đây không phải lần đầu tiên tôi tới thăm một làng nghề nước mắm, tuy nhiên chuyến đi lần này đã để lại những cảm xúc gắn liền đầy sâu lắng, bởi có lẽ, đây là cái tên nước mắm lâu đời và nổi tiếng nhất Đà Nẵng. “Sắp đến nơi rồi đấy”, mẹ tôi nói khi chúng tôi lao vụt qua những hàng cây dừa và bãi cát trắng trong ánh nắng hè chói chang. Chỉ nhìn vào những nhà hàng, khách sạn với đủ loại dịch vụ khác chen chúc mọc lên nơi đây, thật khó mà có thể tin được rằng chúng tôi đang trên đường tới một trong những làng nghề cổ xưa nhất Việt Nam.
Nam Ô là một ngôi làng nằm bên bờ Vịnh Đà Nẵng, nổi tiếng hàng trăm năm qua với không chỉ loại nước mắm lừng danh mà còn bởi các hoạt động đánh bắt và giao thương vô cùng phát triển. Kể từ thế kỉ 18, ngôi làng này còn nổi tiếng bởi nghề sản xuất thuốc súng và vũ khí, được bắt nguồn từ nội chiến Trịnh Nguyễn và về sau này là khởi nghĩa Quang Trung. Tuy nhiên, ngành làm pháo của làng Nam Ô lại vấp phải nhiều thăng trầm, mà đỉnh điểm là khi nhà nước cấm sản xuất và tiêu thụ pháo đốt vì lí do an toàn vào năm 1996, khiến cho hiện nay làng Nam Ô chỉ còn được biết đến với các hoạt động sản xuất nước mắm. Qua năm tháng, bất chấp sự phát triển thần tốc của ngành du lịch thành phố, làng Nam Ô vẫn hiền hòa lặng lẽ, nép mình ẩn giấu giữa những căn nhà nhỏ giản dị, khác xa với vẻ trù phú và huy hoàng trong quá khứ.
Nam Ô đã từng là một trong những trung tâm đánh bắt và thương mại chính của Đà Nẵng và miền Trung Việt Nam, thế nhưng đáng buồn thay, khi nghề làm pháo phát triển bùng nổ và rồi bị dập tắt vào thập niên 90, ngày nay chỉ còn một vài hộ là còn trung thành gắn bó với nghề làm mắm. Cho dù thứ nước chấm này vẫn là một phần không thể thiếu trong mọi bữa cơm Việt, nước mắm truyền thống đang vấp phải ngày càng nhiều sự cạnh tranh với các thể loại nước mắm công nghiệp rẻ hơn, phổ biến nhưng tất nhiên, không thể đậm đà bằng. Cho dù vậy, nụ cười rám nắng của vị chủ nhà vẫn không hề kém tươi: ” Nước mắm Nam Ô đã thành thương hiệu rồi, và dù có thế nào thì người ta vẫn đến mua. Ngay cả khi dân thành phố người ta ít mua, thì người ở đây họ vẫn biết mà tìm đến, vì nước mắm truyền thống là không có cái gì thay thế được cả.” Và tôi cũng tin vào điều tương tự: Nước mắm chính là linh hồn của ẩm thực Việt Nam, và cho dù thói quen của chúng ta có thay đổi đến đâu thì nước mắm luôn có chỗ đứng, trên bàn ăn và tróng mỗi trái tim của người Việt.
Hãy xem video mình giới thiệu về cách làm nước mắm truyền thống tại đường link bên trên:
Recipe: Vietnamese Fish Sauce For Dipping
When I’m feeling fancy, I like to call this “fish sauce vinaigrette” or even “anchovy vinaigrette.” Essentially, it’s the vital finishing touch on scores of Vietnamese dishes. It can be used as a dipping sauce, a condiment, or a dressing. If you know how to make this one recipe, you’ll have the key to unlock an arsenal of Vietnamese dishes.
The Vietnamese name for this sauce is nuoc mam cham—“nuoc mam” referring to the fish sauce and “cham” meaning “to dip.” I’m showing you this recipe as a prelude to the rice vermicelli bowl I’ll talk about next time, as my answer to the one I had at Bun Thit Nuong Chi Thong in Saigon.
I’ve even used similar versions to give a western salad a southeast Asian flair.
It’s super simple to make, especially if you throw everything into a Magic Bullet the way I do. Store it in an airtight container in your fridge, and it should stay good for a couple of weeks. Be forewarned, though: this stuff is sticky and, while it’s awesome on your food, it’s terrible on your clothes, so be careful!
Notes: My Aunt Carol taught me the 4:3:2:1 ratio, a good rule of thumb to remember when making nuoc mam cham: 4 parts water to 3 parts sugar to 2 parts fish sauce to 1 part acid like lime juice or vinegar.
Ingredients
2 cloves garlic
2 bird’s eye chile peppers or to taste (these are the tiny red peppers usually found in Thai or Vietnamese cooking—they can be super hot, so if you prefer your sauce milder, discard the seeds or omit the peppers all together)
2 limes, juiced (approx 1/4 c)
3/4 c granulated sugar
1/2 c fish sauce
1 c water
Instructions
Make sauce in a blender: In a small blender like the Magic Bullet, combine the garlic, peppers, lime juice, sugar, fish sauce, and water; blend until incorporated.
Make sauce the [slightly more] laborious way: In a mortar & pestle, crush the garlic and peppers (or just mince them). In a mason jar, combine garlic, peppers, and lime juice. In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, fish sauce, and water untildissolved. Pour into jar, cover, and shake to combine.
Let stand 30m for flavors to combine. Store chilled in airtight container for up to 2 wks, but I dare you not to eat it with everything.
Active time: 10m Total time: 40m Yields: 1 pint
Bạn đang xem bài viết The Story Of Fish Sauce trên website Misshutech.com. Hy vọng những thông tin mà chúng tôi đã chia sẻ là hữu ích với bạn. Nếu nội dung hay, ý nghĩa bạn hãy chia sẻ với bạn bè của mình và luôn theo dõi, ủng hộ chúng tôi để cập nhật những thông tin mới nhất. Chúc bạn một ngày tốt lành!