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[wadam]

Sort of on a whim, I bought some Thai fish sauce when I was at the grocery today.  I am not particularly interested in Asian cooking.  But I had this vague idea that it might be useful in other contexts -- sort of like the way that the ancient Romans used garum / liquamen.  I've done a little bit of experimenting with it already, and discovered that fish sauce + marsala wine is a very nice combination, and might be a good basis for a sauce for fish or pork.  But looking a little bit more broadly, I'm wondering how all of you out there use it?  What flavor combinations do you like?  Anything unexpected?  Particularly tasty?  Anything I should definitely avoid?

Any advice will help.  Thanks!

[Revalator]

After watching how it was made. I most likeley wont use it

[wadam]

I can't say that I'm particularly squeemish about fermented fish.  There are plenty of foods that are unappetizing -- even revolting -- in the intermediate stages that are lovely by the time they're done.

[labradors]

Haven't tried playing around with fish sauce yet, but have only used it in things like lumpia.  Pairing it with Marsala sounds interesting.  I have some fish sauce in my fridge.  Guess it's time to start experimenting.

Revelator, you should see how soy sauce is made!

[Edouard]

Try using it on almost everything that is sour. Like unripe mangos, tamarind soup etc. For starters get a tilapia or any fish like this pan fry til crispy on the outside and cooked inside. Mix fish sauce with a bit of lemon juice Or if you could get calamansi it will taste  and use as a dip for your fish. Though i like my fish sauce filipino style than the thai coz the thai ones smells better or more fragrant thus leaving an after taste. Basically we use fish sauce just like salt on lots of dishes course asian dishes.

If you want the dip hot just get a small red chilli and crush it in your fish sauce mix itll be great. Try to experiment with vinegar too. 

[labradors]

... tamarind soup...

Ooh!  That sounds interesting - especially with all the tamarind we have here.  Would you be willing to post (or PM if you feel posting is not appropriate) a recipe?  I have a small amount of concentrate left in the freezer from the last time I made it, but could always get more tamarind.  Here, it's sold by the pound, either with the shell or already peeled, but the concentrate that most American recipes would mention is not available here, so I just make my own.

You mentioned "Filipino style."  Are you Filipino?  If so (and if you are willing to share), please don't "Americanise" the recipe, since I prefer to use original, authentic recipes, if possible.  Plus, I'm not in the States - I'm in Honduras.

Thanks!

[Edouard]

Yep I'm a Filipino but Im here in Dubai for work right now. When you said lumpia you mean the Filipino Lumpia? or which kind of Lumpia? We have several Lumpias which is also a spring roll but with different stuffings inside.

OK so heres Tamarind Soup or the "Sinigang" as we call it.

Ingredients: I'm sorry but I really don't measure my ingredients with this recipe maybe you can search a recipe with specific amounts on the net but I'll try to give it a shot.

- Pork (Ribs or Belly) 1Kg cut into cubes or 2"x1" You can also mix both
- Water or Rice water Enough to cover the pork in a pot (Rice water as I call it is the water you throw after washing your rice before cooking it)
- Kamatis (Tomatoes) 3 pcs quartered or cut into eights if you want to.
- Kangkong (I dunno if its still kangkong in English) a bunch of these you get this also bundled
- Gabi (Taro in english) 4 medium sized peeled if its too big cut in half
- Sampaloc (Unripened tamarind 5-10 pcs with shells)
- Sitaw (String beans) a bundle coz I usually get it here bundled try 200g cut into strips about 2 inches long each
- Labanos (Radish sliced diagonally like this () I hope you can get a picture of how it really looks from the net)
- Sibuyas (Onions 3pcs sliced into strips)
- Bawang (Garlic 4 cloves minced)
- Siling pansigang (Green finger peppers or the green long ones)
- Cooking oil (2 tbsp just for sauteing) I use canola
- Patis (Fish sauce) 3 Tbsp

Procedure:
1. In a small pot boil tamarind in water (not rice water) 2-3 cups till shell cracks, then peel off the shell strain the water put the tamarind flesh back and let simmer for another 2-3 mins mash and remove the seeds from the tamarind flesh now strain it again and set aside.
2. In a bigger pot saute your garlic then add onions and tomatoes let simmer till tomatoes are soft.
3. Add the pork then add a table spoon of your patis saute a bit then add in your water or Rice water and the Taro (this is hard to soften so add it as soon as you add the water) bring to a boil. skim off the floating things from the meat. (Is it protein from the meat)
4. Now add the Tamarind soup you prepared and taste to the sourness you like (I like mine too sour while others like them light but as I always say Its supposed to be sour so I do mine sour till i like the taste.)
5. Simmer till the meat is slightly tender.
6. When the meat is tender add the horse radish simmer till the radish is cooked or more transparent. Add the remaining fish sauce and stir.
7. Add the String beans simmer 2 mins then the kangkong then Chili. Simmer again for 5 more mins.
8. Serve hot in a bowl with jasmine rice and a saucer with patis and red chili crushed on it. use this to season as you eat. also adds to your appetite.

Tips:

1. If you don't know yet how it should taste go to an asian supermarket and get a tamarind mix. Brands are Knorr and Mama Sita's Sampalok or sinigang mix. Use the powdered sachet not the cubes. This is what is usually available here in Dubai coz tamarind here is seasonal and very expensive I didn't see unripe ones too. If you liked it use the real tamarind and adjust the seasoning.

2. It would taste better the second day. when the ingredients already met each other specially the radish and chili.

3. If you cook this in a clay pot it will taste better and more authentic. Dunno why but this is how the grannies cook it.

There I hope you like it and I hope I never missed a thing. I'll review later.

[labradors]

When you said lumpia you mean the Filipino Lumpia? or which kind of Lumpia?

Lumpiang Shanghai
Now that I've just made my own Chinese-dumpling wrappers for the first time, maybe I'll get brave and try making my own lumpia wrappers, too.

OK so heres Tamarind Soup or the "Sinigang" as we call it.

Interesting.  I had envisioned more of a loose, broth kind of soup, but this is more like a pork stew with tamarind in it.  Still sounds great, though.

- Kangkong (I dunno if its still kangkong in English) a bunch of these you get this also bundled
- Gabi (Taro in english) 4 medium sized peeled if its too big cut in half

These may be the only tricky parts.  HERE and HERE is some information I found about kangkong.  Most sources said that spinach would be the closest substitute.

THIS is what I found about taro (already knew what it was, so only looked for a substitute).  One site also suggested malanga as a possible substitute.  I can get casava (yuca) here, and I think I can get malanga, too.

If you had to choose, which substitutes would you use?

1. If you don't know yet how it should taste go to an asian supermarket and get a tamarind mix. Brands are Knorr and Mama Sita's Sampalok or sinigang mix. Use the powdered sachet not the cubes. This is what is usually available here in Dubai coz tamarind here is seasonal and very expensive I didn't see unripe ones too. If you liked it use the real tamarind and adjust the seasoning.

Tamarind is plentiful and inexpensive here, and I can't recall ever noticing a time when the stores didn't have it.  Its most common use, here, is as a very refreshing drink.  Of course, they do have to sweeten it quite a bit.  I've been looking for other ways of using it (e.g. some delicious Tamarind-Glazed Turkey Burgers), so the Sinigang will be a great thing for me to try.  I've also been contemplating using tamarind as a marinade for chicken, but I haven't decided what else I want to put with it yet.

Now that I know more about this, I'll have to see what I can find about it on the Filipino Forum.  I may be American, but I really enjoy trying cuisines from all parts of the world.

Thank you very much.  It will probably be a couple of weeks before I get to this, but I do plan to try it soon.

[labradors]

One more note:  Found THIS in the Filipino forum.  It has a couple of recipes, so the comparisons and contrasts will be helpful, as you said.

Of course, they mention using the soup mix, which we don't have here, but I would rather use the actual tamarind, anyway, as in your recipe.  The procedure you described for that, by the way, is essentially what I do with the tamarind, except I buy the already-peeled tamarind (a sticky mess, I know).

[Edouard]

Lumpiang shanghai hmm i'll try to make some this weekend my wife makes great lumpiang shanghai. Where did you learn to eat or cook lumpia? I heard on one of the podcasts that The chef's wife is a Filipina. I wonder which Filipino dishes Jacob likes.

I know it's originally chinese but I think that the term Lumpiang Shanghai is a Filipino version.

[labradors]

Where did you learn to eat or cook lumpia?

When I lived in Orlando, Florida, I knew some Filipinos, and they brought lumpia to something for church.  Unfortunately, I didn't get the recipe, then, but after I moved to Honduras, I started wanting more lumpia, and there is NOTHING Filipino where I live, so I joined the Filipino Forum that I mentioned earlier.  Someone there gave me a recipe for Lumpiang Shanghai, but I still didn't make them right away, since I couldn't get any wrappers, and was still a bit daunted at trying to make them (got that recipe from the forum, too).  Well, one day, one of our local supermarkets started carrying the round, rice-paper wrappers.  Although those weren't EXACTLY the right thing, I went ahead and used them with the Lumpiang Shanghai recipe, and they were delicious!

Now that the potstickers for which I had to make the wrappers turned out so well, I think I'm ready to try my hand at making the lumpia wrappers.

I heard on one of the podcasts that The chef's wife is a Filipina. I wonder which Filipino dishes Jacob likes.

Either I missed that, forgot it, or just haven't gotten to that episode yet (I'm relatively new to this site), but that's really cool.  I know I'd love to learn more Filipino dishes: adobo, pancit, polvorones, sans rival, etc.  My biggest barrier (apart from ingredient availability) is that there's a lot of seafood that I don't like (no mater how many times I've tried them).  Lobster, crawfish and crab are great, but I don't like shrimp.  Likewise, there are many fish that I like, but not salmon, for example (even though, sorry to say, I HAVE tried some of the best Alaskan salmon, and still didn't like it).

[labradors]

Edouard,

As I was saving the recipe to my computer and looking up more information about Sinigang, I had another question:

Since your recipe has pork, would it be Sinigang na Baboy, or would it be Sinigang sa Sampaloc because of the tamarind?

It will be a couple of weeks before I try this, but I'd like save the recipe with the correct name.

Thanks!

[Edouard]

There are several sinigang recipes and they are called by what we put in it.

Sinigang na baboy means pork sinigang and pork always call for tamarind as its flavor. You can also call it sinigang na baboy sa sampaloc.

Here are other varieties:

sinigang na manok - or sinampalukang manok which is almost the same but cooked with chicken and tamarind a lil bit of difference with the veggies used and tge strength of the sour taste.

Sinigang sa miso - this is usualy cooked with fish cross section white fishes and flavored with miso paste plus tamarind, tomatoes or kamias.

Sinigang sa bayabas - again a fish sinigang mostly bsngus or milk fish but flavored with guavas to make it sour and a bit sweet.

Sinigang na hipon - shrimp sinigang flavored with tamarind and tomstoes.

I think theres more but ive only done this recipes. All sinigang but different ingredients and methods. Sinigang maybe refered to the sour taste which is the common thing on all of them.

[labradors]

Thank you.  I shall be making your recipe about a week from now.

One experiment I tried, this past week, because of what I already had on hand and other things I was doing at the time, was as follows:

• Put tamarind into a saucepan, add water to cover, simmer until reduced by half.  Allow to cool.
• Add some diced papaya, sliced onions and salt and pepper.
• Place mixture into ZipLoc bag with chicken to marinate over night.
• Remove the chicken and clean off any stray pieces of tamarind.
• Bake the chicken until done

It was very good, but I shall try it again with less papaya and with some orange juice and/or mango.

[Edouard]

when you say Chicken and Papaya to almost any Filipino it means "Tinola" although we usually make it with chayote instead of papaya, but chayote is way too expensive here in Dubai where as you can get it really cheap from the Philippines, so papaya is the closest alternative. Tinola is another soup dish kinda stew and is very simple to make.