Tiếng ViệtFish sauce is the soul of many delicious dishes in the Central region such as vermicelli with fish sauce, rice paper rolls with pork, banh beo, vermicelli with grilled pork…
With simple ingredients and preparation, it can be stored for months to use gradually.
1. Choose good fish sauce
Mam nem (also known as mam cai) is a popular condiment in many coastal provinces in the Central region. Mam nem is made from fresh fish such as anchovies, mackerel, herring, grouper, and catfish.
There are 2 types of mam nem: whole fish and finely ground. The finely ground type is dried and fermented in the sun, and the maker stirs it to make it finer and cooks faster. People in the Central region often save it to eat during stormy days when food is scarce.
If you travel to Da Nang, you can buy mam nem at Con market or Han market. If you don’t order from many online shops. Be careful to choose to buy fish sauce from reputable brands. You need to read the ingredients and expiration date carefully to ensure that it tastes best when mixed.
2. Prepare ingredients to season the fish sauce
Original fish sauce has a strong salty taste, so it is necessary to add other auxiliary ingredients such as pineapple, garlic, chili, galangal, lemongrass, sugar, ginger… to soften the taste, bring out the characteristic aroma, and stimulate the taste buds.
Pineapple should be ripe to have a natural sweet taste, chopped or pureed. Crush garlic to release aromatic essential oils. Crush galangal and lemongrass to reduce the strong smell of fish sauce. Chili and ginger are spicy and numb the tip of the tongue, adjust according to preference, add chili to create a red color for the bowl of fish sauce with an attractive color. Add sugar to taste. In addition, hot spices (garlic, chili, ginger) can help kill fungi and strange bacteria if any.
3. How to mix fish sauce
Method 1: If using immediately, put fish sauce (not cooked) in a bowl, add sugar (adjust to taste), a little filtered water, chopped or ground ripe pineapple, crushed garlic, crushed chili, galangal, lemongrass, lemon juice and stir well until dissolved and thick. Or faster, put fish sauce with the auxiliary ingredients, a little filtered water in a blender and it is ready to use. Usually, for 150 ml of fish sauce, use 1/2 ripe pineapple, 100 gr of sugar, season to taste with sour, spicy, salty, sweet to taste. This method can be stored in the refrigerator for about 1 week.
Method 2: If you want to keep it for a long time, saute 1/2 amount of garlic and chili until fragrant, then add fish sauce, crushed pineapple with sugar, lemongrass, and crushed galangal, add a little boiling water and season to taste. Then, let it cool, add the remaining chopped garlic and chili, add lemon juice (optional) and put it in a glass jar, refrigerate for a month.
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