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Posted to alt.food.asian
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Vegetarian Subst for Fish Sauce?
writes:
>minosagape > wrote:
>> Does anyone know what could serve as a credible vegetarian alternative to
>> Fish Sauce, and if so, where I might order it online? I make pretty good
>> Pad Thai using Fish Sauce, but only my guest get to enjoy it.
>> Thanks.
>As far as I know, there is no substitute for Fish Sauce (Nam Pla) in Thai
>cooking.
>You might experiment with whisking together soy sauce and a thin vegetable
>oil, although I've never tried this. Keep us informed.
Fish sauce basically has three properties: saltiness, umami (glutamate)
and fishiness.
Soy sauce, miso, and "liquid aminos" all have the first two. Seaweed
has fishiness (and some kinds, like wakame, are full of umami too).
So, you can substitute those, *or* you can make your own fake fish
sauce, by boiling seaweed and then making a sort of stock (with garlic,
black peppercorns, and soy sauce or miso) then reducing it until it
tastes horrible.
Horrible like fish sauce tastes, on its own. It's fine for
cooking, though.
I've also steeped seaweed, garlic and chopped hot peppers in a
rice wine vinegar/lime juice mix, which makes a good nam prik
(particularly if you add some MSG to it).
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