Recipes with fish sauce

59 recipes. Page 2 of 3

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Cá Kho Tộ (Vietnamese Caramelized Braised Fish in Clay Pot)

Unlike Korean fish braises, this southern Vietnamese home dish has no chili at all; caramel and black pepper carry the flavor. Sugar is cooked to a dark caramel first, and catfish or another white fish then braises in it with fish sauce and coconut water. Once the sugar passes deep amber and starts to blacken it turns bitter, and the shallots and garlic go into the pot just before that point. Sweet and salty up front, it ends with the bite of pepper.

Prep 15min Cook 35min 4 servings

Rice Easy

Thai Chicken Fried Rice

Sold from morning to night at Thai street stalls and restaurants, this chicken fried rice keeps its seasoning short: fish sauce, oyster sauce, and a little sugar. The diced chicken thigh goes into a very hot wok first, spread in a single layer to brown. At the table, fish sauce, dried chili flakes, sugar, and vinegar are always within reach, and each diner reseasons their own plate.

Prep 12min Cook 10min 2 servings

Soups Easy

Tinola (Filipino Ginger Chicken Soup with Green Papaya)

The papaya has to be green and firm, not the ripe fruit, and it is added only after the chicken has simmered, so it softens to fork-tender while keeping its shape. Plenty of julienned ginger, fried first with garlic and onion, gives tinola's clear broth a clean, sharp heat.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 15min Cook 45min 4 servings

Noodles Medium

Vietnamese Grilled Pork Vermicelli

Pork marinated in fish sauce, sugar, and garlic and seared over high heat develops a caramelized brown edge while the inside stays juicy. In this southern Vietnamese bowl it goes, still warm, over chilled rice vermicelli and raw greens, and that hot-cold contrast is much of the pleasure. A sweet-sour dressing of lime juice and fish sauce ties meat, noodles, and vegetables together with no broth at all.

Prep 20min Cook 15min 2 servings

Salads Easy

Shrimp Mango Lime Salad

Snappy shrimp and soft, ripe mango are pulled together by lime juice and fish sauce, salty and sour at once. It is best eaten cold, soon after tossing, before the mango and shrimp start shedding liquid into the bowl.

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Prep 15min Cook 5min 2 servings

Asian Medium

Cha Ca La Vong (Hanoi Turmeric Cod with Dill)

Turmeric-yellow white fish meets a big handful of dill and scallions, and the dill gives off a strong, anise-like smell the moment it hits the hot pan. This Hanoi dish is named after the La Vong restaurant, which has sold nothing else since the late nineteenth century, and a street in the Old Quarter carries its name too. Cod is the fish here, with rice noodles, roasted peanuts and fresh herbs alongside.

Prep 20min Cook 12min 2 servings

Rice Easy

Pineapple Shrimp Khao Pad

Shrimp fried rice, pale yellow from a little curry powder, goes to the table inside the hollowed-out pineapple shell it was spooned into.

Prep 15min Cook 10min 2 servings

Soups Medium

Thai Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup (Tom Yum Goong)

Sour, spicy, and salty all hit at once in this shrimp soup. The base is chicken stock briefly steeped with lemongrass, galangal, and kaffir lime leaves, kept at a moderate simmer so it stays clear, and Thai chili paste turns it red. Shrimp need only a minute or two; once they curl and turn pink they are done, and longer cooking costs them their springy bite. Lime juice is stirred in after the heat is off, since boiling dulls its aroma.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 18min Cook 15min 2 servings

Noodles Easy

Drunken Noodles

Pad kee mao, as drunken noodles are called in Thailand, layers chili and garlic heat with a last-minute handful of basil over wide rice noodles. This version uses chicken thigh and Thai basil, which smells different from the holy basil of traditional versions. The 250 g of noodles is a dried weight (fresh noodles at the same weight give a different yield), and wide dried noodles vary enough that the package directions are the better guide for softening them. Draining the softened noodles well keeps the soy, oyster and fish sauces coating the strands instead of pooling around them. Once the noodles join the pan, a short toss is enough; longer heating breaks them apart.

🍺 Bar Snacks

Prep 25min Cook 10min 2 servings

Salads Easy

Som Tam (Thai Green Papaya Salad with Lime Fish Sauce Dressing)

Shredded green papaya is bruised only lightly in a mortar with a hot lime dressing and keeps its strands crisp instead of limp. The mortar acts more like a mixing bowl than a grinder. Pounding hard snaps the thin strands and softens them.

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Prep 18min 0 2 servings

Asian Medium

Cha Gio (Southern Vietnamese Crispy Rice Paper Spring Rolls)

Rice paper rather than a wheat wrapper sets these southern Vietnamese rolls apart: it fries into a thin, blistered shell that shatters more sharply than a Chinese egg roll. Rolling tension matters, since a loose roll bursts in the oil and an overly tight one squeezes the pork and glass noodle filling into a hard core. In the south, families gather around Tet to roll them by the hundreds.

Prep 30min Cook 20min 4 servings

Rice Easy

Thai Crab Fried Rice (Khao Pad Pu)

Egg and scallion are about the only other things in the pan, so the sweetness of the crab comes through first. In Thailand it arrives with a wedge of lime on the plate for you to squeeze over yourself.

Prep 12min Cook 10min 2 servings

Noodles Medium

Hokkien Prawn Mee (Spicy Prawn Noodle Soup)

Shrimp shells fried with garlic until red and fragrant set how far this broth can go. Pork stock is added and simmered with them, then strained into a soup that looks almost clear but tastes concentrated. The peeled shrimp go in only at the end, with the egg noodles, and come out as soon as they turn opaque. A spoonful of sambal on top slowly melts into the hot broth, and the heat builds as you eat. It is a mainstay of Singapore's hawker centers.

Prep 25min Cook 35min 2 servings

Salads Medium

Som Tam Thai (Thai Green Papaya Salad)

Fine shreds of green papaya get lightly bruised in a mortar so they soak up lime juice, fish sauce, and palm sugar. Unripe papaya has none of the fruit's sweetness, just a crisp crunch, and the dressing hits hot, sour, salty, and sweet all at once. A cold-water soak firms the shreds, but they need thorough draining or the measured dressing turns watery. Light pounding is all it takes; stop once the tomatoes start to release juice, before they collapse. Without a mortar, a large bowl and a rolling pin do the same job with gentle pressing, and seeding the Thai chilies tames the heat. Serve it as soon as the peanuts are mixed in, while the papaya is still crisp.

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Prep 18min 0 2 servings

Asian Easy

Kai Jeow (Crispy Thai Omelette)

Eggs beaten with fish sauce until foamy hit oil that is almost smoking and puff instantly, forming lacy, crisp edges around a thick, fluffy middle. Thai home cooks slide it straight onto jasmine rice for a meal, and it has little in common with a gently cooked Western omelet.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes

Prep 10min Cook 10min 2 servings

Rice Medium

Nasi Kandar (Penang Indian-Muslim Rice with Mixed Curries)

In Penang, nasi kandar usually means rice flooded with several curry gravies mixed together, a style called kuah campur. This version keeps it to a single coconut chicken curry with halved boiled eggs. The curry is deliberately left thin so it seeps between the grains, and the rice is cooked a little drier than usual so it can soak up that gravy without going soft.

Prep 20min Cook 35min 2 servings

Noodles Medium

Hu Tieu Nam Vang (Vietnamese Pork & Shrimp Noodle Soup)

From the Cambodian immigrant communities of Phnom Penh, this clear rice noodle soup crossed into southern Vietnam and settled into Saigon's street food. Fish sauce and a little sugar give the pork broth its savory-sweet southern balance, and this recipe starts from ready-made pork bone stock rather than simmering bones. Once seasoned, the broth drops to low heat so it stays clear and fragrant. Ground pork fried with garlic until dry and crumbly sits on top as a contrast to the silky broth. The shrimp spend only about a minute in boiling water and come out as soon as they turn pink, which keeps them tender.

Prep 25min Cook 40min 2 servings

Salads Medium

Thai Beef Salad (Charred Sirloin Tossed in Lime-Fish Sauce)

Fish sauce and lime hit first, salty and sour, with seared sirloin underneath carrying the beefy flavor. Chili flakes bring heat, and torn mint cuts through the richness of the meat. Rather than a fixed cooking time, which shifts with the thickness of the steak and the heat of the pan, doneness is judged by the thickest part reaching at least 63°C, followed by a 5-minute rest before slicing. If the red onion tastes too sharp, a 5-minute soak in cold water tames it, as long as it is drained well afterward. Fish sauce does all the seasoning with no separate salt, and the beef is tossed while still warm so it contrasts with the crisp cucumber, tomato and red onion.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 20min Cook 10min 2 servings

Asian Medium

Panang Curry (Thai Thick Peanut Coconut Curry)

The sauce is cooked down until it coats a spoon thickly, so it clings to the thin slices of pork tenderloin rather than pooling around them. Peanut butter makes it nutty, and hand-torn kaffir lime leaves bring a sharp citrus smell up through the rich coconut.

Prep 15min Cook 20min 2 servings

Noodles Hard

Khanom Jeen Nam Ya (Thai Fermented Rice Noodles in Fish Curry)

Poached white fish gets mashed fine and stirred into a red curry and coconut milk sauce, where the fish disappears into the gravy instead of sitting in chunks. Its poaching water, scented with lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, returns to the pot as the stock and keeps a herbal note under the richness of the coconut. Fish sauce and palm sugar set the salty-sweet balance. The rice noodles stay plain: they are boiled, rinsed, and simply drowned in hot sauce. All the seasoning has to come from the curry, which should be loose enough to run between the strands. In Thailand the plate comes with raw bean sprouts, morning glory, green chili, and lime for each diner to mix in. The dish began at royal banquets, yet today it is ordinary market-stall food.

Prep 25min Cook 30min 4 servings

Asian Medium

Thai Steamed Lime Fish (Whole Fish Chili Fish Sauce)

A whole steamed white fish gets a sauce of lime juice, fish sauce, garlic and minced Thai chili spooned over it raw, never heated. The lime and chili stay sharp, and cilantro goes on top. Whatever sauce pools on the plate is soaked up with jasmine or sticky rice.

Prep 20min Cook 18min 2 servings

Noodles Medium

Coconut Shrimp Laksa (Spiced Coconut Broth Noodle Soup with Shrimp)

Laksa paste fried in oil until it bleeds red does most of the work, and coconut milk and chicken stock turn it into a spicy, creamy broth. Fried tofu puffs act like sponges, soaking up that broth so they burst when bitten, while the shrimp spend just 3 minutes in the pot and stay plump. This style of curry noodle soup is everyday food in Singapore and Malaysia. Coconut milk turns thick and heavy as it cools, so the bowls go to the table as soon as the broth is poured.

Prep 20min Cook 18min 2 servings

Asian Medium

Thai Green Curry with Shrimp

The thick cream from the top of the coconut milk is heated first until a little oil shows, and the green curry paste is fried in that before the rest of the milk goes in. Eggplant can cook until soft, but the shrimp go in last and come off the heat the moment they turn pink and curl. Thai basil and lime juice are added off the heat.

Prep 20min Cook 20min 4 servings

Noodles Easy

Mee Siam (Singaporean Tangy Tamarind Shrimp Rice Vermicelli)

Tamarind leads the flavor, sour and fruity, with fish sauce and sugar rounding it into a sweet-salty tang. Despite a name that points to Siam, the dish belongs to Singapore and Malaysia rather than Thailand. Thin rice vermicelli is soaked, then stir-fried hard and fast so the sauce soaks in without the noodles breaking down. The shrimp are only seared at first and finish cooking alongside the noodles and bean sprouts, which go out with some crunch still in them.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 15min Cook 15min 2 servings