Salty, light bodied, fermented funky, just a hint of ocean, a mild tang, and a whisper of sweetness. Ah fish sauce. How you have tormented me so over the decades, popping up on ingredient lists and trying your best to make me scramble for a suitable substitution. No more dagnabbit! I’ve tackled and tamed your elusive flavour and you shall torment me no more! Good thing for the rest of you, i’ve spent a looooong time tinkering with this one, and while nothing is going to perfectly mimic the gross brown liquid that graces so many dishes and tables, this hits all the same notes and will happily fill in as a delightful substitute.
Yet again, i suggest following the directions for the instant pot/electric pressure cooker (as for the worcestershire, and oyster sauces) and in fact, this recipe can be done at the same time as the oyster sauce, as well as uses it as an ingredient. Two massively important base sauces/seasonings that should cover most of your SE asian cooking needs [still working on a shrimp paste recipe btw but i’ve successfully used “anchovy” paste (at half the amount) to bring in similar flavour elements, so you can use that for now if you’d like.]
This is pretty easy to throw together, we have some shallots for sweetness and to help mellow some of the rougher ingredients, garlic for pep and bite, kala namak for a sulphur-y component often found in fermented fish products, kombu to add a mild oceanic quality, aka miso for slight tang, richness, and a fermented oomph, bay leaves for tea like woodsy, herbal notes and to help pull everything together. We have yellow mustard seed to provide a little bite and mild sharpness, the liquid from fermented tofu for an ammoniacal/fermented quality produced from the breakdown of proteins, chinese light soy and broth bring in more liquid, salt, and savoriness, worcestershire for zip and zing and to deepen the flavours, chinese black vinegar for sweetness and acidity, shaoxing wine to bring in nutty elements and alcohol, and finally some oyster sauce to add some body and round out the flavour profile.
All the non-liquid ingredients, plus the tofu liquid and worc sauce, get thrown into a jar and processed for 30 minutes. Then that gets strained and added to everything else and it’s done! (Don’t worry, the stovetop version isn’t that much more work) I highly recommend doing this at the same time as the oyster sauce, all three jars should fit in fine (unless you have a small pot….then i’m not sure) and you might as well save some electric and time. This keeps up to a month in the fridge and at least a year in the freezer, so go ahead and make a full batch, a quart isn’t actually all that much over a year (especially if you like thai food or use this as a dipping sauce.)
This can be subbed for “regular” fish sauce in any recipe at the same amount, it also makes a delicious sauce or marinade on it’s own and a fantastic base for dipping sauce (just add some acid, water, ginger, garlic and scallions, maybe some red pepper…maybe a dab of toasted sesame…sometimes sugar…anyway, you get the idea.) Now go forth and get saucy!
For recommendations on substitutions, see the notes as well as the posts for worcestershire sauce and oyster sauce, some of these ingredients are covered in more detail there.
3 comments
For the fermented tofu — is that red or white kind ? Or a different kind altogether? Can you send a link to what you are referring to?
Either white or red will work fine, white will give you a milder flavour and the red a more pungent one, the choice is yours 🙂
Excellent! Another freakin’ FANTASTIC post. Read of course by your number 1 FANtastic person 🙂
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