There are hundreds or thousands of NMP recipes and perhaps that has to be that way, since each family has one. To make this more interesting, depends on the food you may have yet a different recipe, even in one family. Surfing on the net, we can find thousands of recipe. So, how are we going to classify or create a scale for them? Here is one approach: Ratio of water to raw fish sauce, I'll call this Ly's Fish Sauce Classification If we look closely at most NMP recipes, three main ingredients: FS + Water + Sugar; and the ratio of FS to the Water and Sugar play very important role. The Sugar makes it less salty, and the water dilutes the FS flavor and the saltiness, along with the color. So, the ratio between the FS and Water is more important. Sugar becomes the additional ingredients like garlic or vinegar. One/Two (OT)In this category, we have the mixing of 1 part fish sauce with 1 to 2 parts water. The taste of FS is more prevalent. You can still very much recognize the salt and the flavors of the FS. Here are list of recipes found on the net 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Go well with: Chả Giò Three/Four (TF)In this category, we have the mixing of 1 part fish sauce with 3 to 4 parts water. You can still taste the salt, but the unique flavors of FS is diluted, but you can still taste them. Here are list of recipes found on the net: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Go well with: Chả Giò Five/Six (FS)In this category, we have the mixing of 1 part fish sauce with 5 to 6 parts
water. You can still taste the salt but other ingredients like sugar, garlic, vinegar ... are also present. The unique flavors of FS is
less dominant and share about the same level as added ingredients. We see more of these ratio (and above) for the Northern VN Here are list of recipes found on the net: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Go well with: Chả Giò, Bánh Cuốn, Seven/Eigth (SE)In this category, we have the mixing of 1 part fish sauce with 7 to 8 parts
water. At this ratio, the blend of all other ingredients plays the important role, because none is dominant. The flavor of FS is less noticeable. It depends in the recipe to push one or few ingredient to stand-out, but one thing for sure, the FS is playing the supporting role, not the main character. We see more of these ratio (and above) for the Northern VN. Additional ingredient is the shrimp or pork braising sauces. Here are list of recipes found on the net: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Go well with: Bánh Cuốn, Bún Chả, Hints:
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