AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Uses for shrimp paste9/21/2023 “Shrimp paste lends that little bit of oomph to a dish.” “It’s that sense of gravitas,” Nguyen said. ![]() You just need something tart to slice through the thick fog of fermented shrimp flavor. If you want to play around with dipping sauce recipes, you can do like a true Vietnamese grandma does and add crushed canned pineapple, which pairs really well with grilled beef. “The way she would ‘cook it’ would be to have something acidic, so lime juice.” At her house, the resulting dipping sauce, a concoction of the paste, lime juice, sugar, water and fish sauce, was often paired with the fresh and light flavors of cha ca La Vong, or turmeric-marinated fish.īut you don’t always have to stick with limes: Nguyen’s spicy-sweet-acidic recipe for umami ketchup utilizes the same principles but with tomato and rice vinegar. “I grew up with a mom who was like, if we had mam tom for anything, she would say in Vietnamese. For consistency, Nguyen favors the Lee Kum Kee and Koon Chun brands, both of which call the condiment “finely ground shrimp sauce.” From an early age, Nguyen knew that mastering fermented shrimp paste had everything to do with making it work in tandem with other strong flavors. Northern Vietnamese favor a more finely ground paste made from big shrimps, while Central Vietnamese make a rougher, redder paste from the tiny, krill-like shrimp found there.įor years, Vietnamese American cookbook author and expert Andrea Nguyen has maintained that Americans need to wise up to the wonders of fermented shrimp paste. In coastal Vietnam, the process of making this paste utilizes this same method of repetitive action: a mass of shrimp are dried, ground up, pickled, then dried again, each step concentrating and sharpening the flavor. The beauty of fermented shrimp paste is in how the flavor of shrimp has been, like a glob of molten steel, folded over and over onto itself to create a potent end product. Often, the end results depend on whatever the typical local shrimp might be, because they vary in size and flavor. All the peoples of Southeast Asia have their own version - this North Vietnamese version is more liquidy and fine than the rest, though the processes are generally the same. Unlike its solidly dehydrated counterparts in Thailand and the Philippines, mam tom has more of a toothpaste texture. For that reason, you’ll most often find shrimp paste in a supporting role, cheering on the big, meaty flavors of bun bo Hue, or stir fry of chopped pork, lemongrass and chiles. I’m not alone in this: In a piece for Taste on the Thai variety of shrimp paste, writer Mari Uyehara compared it with “a bag of trash on a hot August night.” These are qualities you are looking for! Its pushier character means that it’s a sauce that’s best to take in small doses. ![]() My favorite, the Koon Chun brand, is a finely ground paste that’s colored sort of gray-brown-purple the smell straight out of the jar is akin to the really dank smell of a French Quarter dumpster during Mardi Gras. When you’re ready to take the next step into Southeast Asian umami, get yourself a jar of fermented shrimp paste, or mam tom. ![]() Fish sauce has crossed over from Vietnamese cuisine to use in all kinds of home and restaurant cooking, but it’s hardly the only fermented sea beast potion that Viet cooks love.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |