Nam Pla (Thai fish sauce)

Status Approved
Name	Nam Pla (Thai fish sauce)
Category	Asian, Fish & Seafood, Sauces & Marinades
Serves/Yields	4
Difficulty	Easy
Prep. Time	15 minutes
Cook Time	n/a
Introduction
	Nam Pla, literally 'fish water', is a staple condiment in VietNam and Thailand. It's usually made by fermenting fish (anchovies) in a salt brine until all the liquid is extracted from the fish and then bottled. It has a strong fishy salty flavour and most occidentals (non asian) are not crazy about it. We make our own in a more delicate way, using dried shrimps.
Ingredients
	2 oz salted dried shrimps (you can find them in any good asian grocery store) 1 Tbsp sugar 2 garlic_cloves 3 Tbsp sakè 1 Tbsp Soy sauce juice of 2 limes or green lemons
Directions
Step: 1	In a mortar, mash all the ingredients except the lime juice. While working the sauce, drizzle the lime juice in batches, until the sauce is smooth and soft. Put into a glass jar and store for at least one day in the refrigerator before use. When using the sauce keep in mind that it's less fishy than the commercial one, but still salty.

Time submitted: Sunday, January 07. 2007 at 17:51:08
Contributed By: guido

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Re: Nam Pla (Thai fish sauce) (Score 1)
By guido on Sunday, January 07, 2007 @ 20:47:06 CET
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In some way this sauce sounded familiar to me.
I had to think a while but finally i got it!
This sauce is very close to one of the most used sauces during the roma empire: The Garum Sauce
Garum is a type of fish sauce condiment popular in Ancient Roman society. It was considered by the Romans to be an aphrodisiac, and was usually only consumed by the higher classes of society.

Although it enjoyed its greatest popularity in the Roman world, it originally came from the Greek, gaining its name from the Greek words garos or garon, which named the fish whose intestines were originally used in the condiment's production. The sauce was generally made through the crushing and fermentation in brine of the innards of various fish such as tuna, eel, and others.

Garum was a sauce which, mixed with wine, vinegar, pepper, oil, or water, was served as a condiment or accompaniment with a wide variety of dishes. Although this was its main use, it also was employed as a medicine or for cosmetics.