Fish Sauce
Nam Pla น้ำปลา
If there's any one key ingredient that is critical to cooking Thai food, it is fish sauce. This is a must-buy ingredient. It smells terrible, but makes make Thai food taste great.
Fish sauce is made from small fish and salt fermented for a long time. My mother makes hers in a big earthen barrels, the size that would fit a person. She would let it sit in the sun with salt. She would add pineapple to help digest the fish. After a year, she would extract the juice, filter and boil. That would be her gift for every occasion. Good fish sauce should be clear and brownish in color. A really good fish sauce should have a good fishy smell!
Fish sauce is not new, it was very popular in around the Medeterranian in Roman times. I once heard a report that the fishermen of Galilee were catching fish to be made into fish sauce.
In Thailand, the gourmands and well to do folks buys boutique fish sauce. Unfortunately, the boutique fish sauce places are too small to make it outside of Thailand. If I could I would love to import my mother's fish sauce.
Tipparos was the first brand that made it to the market and eventually to most people's kitchen - when people stopped making it themselves. There are now a number of other great brands available available. Since Tipparos was the first, you sometimes see a other brand which try to copy their original bottle's shape and mimic them with names like "Taperos" or "Tips".
Author: Natty Netsuwan
Recipes made with fish sauce
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Bamboo Shoot Yum
Soop Naw Mai
Shredded bamboo shoots boiled in wild Thai leaves with hot lime sauce.
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Chili Fish Sauce
Nam Pla Prig
Chili fish sauce is one of the most popular sauce that you will be served with in Thailand.
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Crab Fried Rice
Kow Pud Pboo
Crab fried rice served with a wedge of lime, sliced cucumber and chili fish sauce.
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Crispy Catfish Green Mango Salad
Yum Pla Dook Foo
Sour unripe mango, biting lime, salty fish sauce and crisped catfish.
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Fried Fish with Tamarind Sauce
Pla Rad Prig
Whole fish pan fried and served with spicy tamarind sauce
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Giant Noodle Rolls
Goi Tiew Lohd
Tofu, bean sprouts and shrimp wrapped in fresh noodles and served with a spicy sauce
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Ginger and Chicken Stir Fry
Stir fried chicken with julienned ginger and wood ear mushrooms.
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Hot Shallot Sauce with Toasted Rice
Prig Nam Jim
A simple sauce that with wonderful toasted rice aroma.
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Grilled Steak with Spicy Shallot Sauce
Nua Yang
Medium rare grilled steak, served with spicy shallot and lime sauce.
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Noodles with Fish Curry Sauce
Kanom Jeen Nam Ya
Curry fish sauce over rice noodles with fresh and boiled vegetables
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Pad Thai
Stir fried rice noodles with chives, bean sprouts and shrimp.
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Satay
Marinated and grilled pork served on skewers with peanut sauce. A simpler recipe.
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Steamed Curried Fish
Haw Moak
Steamed, marinated fish in curry paste and coconut milk on vegetables.
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Blanched Neem with Grilled Shrimp
Goong Pow Sadow Lou-ug
Hyper-bitter neem leaves and blossoms and hot sweet tamarind sauce on grilled shrimp .
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Tom Yum Goong
Shrimp in clear spicy soup made from lemon grass, kaffir lime, hot pepper, lime juice and fish sauce
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Sauce for Grilled Pork
Nam Jim Moo Ping
Sweet and sour (by tamrind) hot sauce with chopped cilantro.
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Pork Basil
Pad Gaproa Moosub Kaidow
Spicy ground pork stir-fried with fragrant holy basil. Served over jasmine rice, a fried egg and garlic chili fish sauce.
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Tom Yum Gai
Hot and sour, lean chicken soup with lemongrass and galangal.
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Bitter Melon Pickled Mustard Soup
Gang Jued Mara Pak Gahd Dong
A clear broth soup with a well blended bitter, sour and salty flavors.
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Northern Thai Eggplant Salad
Yum Makua Praw
Spicy northern Thai raw eggplant salad with minced pork.
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Nam Tok
Spicy grilled beef salad with toasted rice.
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Mee Grob
Crunchy sweet and sour rice noodles.
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Yum Woon Sen
Spicy glass noodle salad with crunchy peanuts and dried shrimp.
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Royal Mee Grob
Mee Grob Chow Wung
Sweet and sour crispy fried rice vermicelli served with beansprouts and Chinese chives.
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Fresh Bamboo Shoot Soup
Gang Jued Naw Mai Sod Gub Gai
Clear broth soup flavored with fresh bamboo shoot.
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Crab Fried Rice
Kow Pud Pboo
Crab fried rice served with a wedge of lime, sliced cucumber and chili fish sauce.
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Kua Gling Moo
Fiery hot dry pork curry spiced with southern flavors
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Tapioca Dumplings
Saku Sai Moo
Steamed dumplings with pork and peanut filling wrapped in tapioca pearls
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Tom Yum Pork Ribs
Tom Yum Gradoog Moo
Sour and spicy pork rib soup loaded with lemongrass, galangal, shallots and kaffir lime leaves
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Shrimp Paste Rice
Kow Klook Gapi
Rice mixed with shrimp paste spiced with shreded green mango and shallots served with fried egg, sweetened pork.
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Green Mango Chili Fish Sauce
Nam Pla Prig Mamuang
Fish sauce with shredded green mango, spiced with Thai chilis, lime juice and shallots
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Sour Bamboo Curry
Gang Gai Naw Mai Dong
Sour pickled bamboo shoot cooked in red curry paste and coconut milk
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Watermelon Rind Sour Curry
Gang Som Pleug Tang Mo
Watermelon rind cooked in sour and spicy non-coconut curry
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Tom Sab Leng
Fallen off the bone pork backbones in super spicy and sour broth
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Pork Basil
Pad Gaproa Moosub Kaidow
Spicy ground pork stir-fried with fragrant holy basil. Served over jasmine rice, a fried egg and garlic chili fish sauce.
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Pad Kee Mao
Pork stir-fried with spicy sauce, also known as drunken pork
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