[Sca-cooks] needing nuoc cham advice

[Heleen Greenwald]

Hi Anahita,
Thanks for the advice.  I saved the recipe from the website, but I am
leaning towards leaving out the fish sauce all together.  It may make a
"milder" or less intense dish but at least my stomach won't get upset!
Thanks again.
Phillipa

> Phillipa asked:
> >  Can someone give me advice about what to do if I want to have a totally
> >  vegan sauce and don;t want to use the fish sauce?  Should I just leave
it
> >  out, or what should I use to replace the nam pla?
> > >  http://yumfood.net/recipes/fishsauce-vg.html
> This is a NOT a fish sauce substitute. It is a salad sauce recipe.
>
> For your experiment, Phillipa, do not, i repeat, do NOT add the
> sugar, the peanuts, or the chili peppers. These are added to certain
> sauces, and are not an integral part of fish sauce. For example, your
> sauce recipe adds sugar and chili. You don't need to put them in the
> "fake fish sauce".
>
> I suppose the kelp or kumbu powder (kombu is kelp) is there to add a
> "sea" flavor. I never noticed any Southeast Asian fish sauce tasting
> like kelp, but what the heck...
>
> There's no truly adequate substitute for fish sauce, but try soy
> sauce, perhaps with a little extra salt (fish sauce is pretty salty),
> then thinned with water. Won't be much like fish sauce, but will add
> a "rich" and salty flavor.
>
> Seriously, leave out the peanuts, the sugar, and the chili. Really.
>
> Anahita
>