Thank you CS for this great forum of like minds. I am learning a lot here and want to share my personal food experiments with all the great posters and lurkers here. We are a distant but intimate fraternity in the cooking world.
That said, this is a fish sauce thread. I am fond of salt in the many forms that it manifests itself. It's powers to cure, flavor and influence all aspects of food preperation are worthy of study and practice.
I lived in southern Africa for several years and developed a taste for the local jerky--called biltong. When we made a kill, there was no refrigeration, so we would harvest the best cuts--tenderloin, liver, marrow bones, tail to cook for the next two days or so. The rest of the meat would be sliced into long coninuous strips and hung on bushes to dry in the hot dry shade. One of the tricks we used on the better cuts--those with a paucity of connective tissue--we would slice into narrow strips, layer them in a bucket with salt, pepper, curry, whatever. Then we woudl cover it with vinager are marinate for 12-24 hrs. It was hung on bushes until dry--usually 2 days. It was always a staple for on-the-go nutrition. I still make it here in Tucson. I now use fish sauce 1:1 with vinager plus spices of my choosing--garlic and cracked pepper. My new secret is to cold smoke the jerky during the drying process. It is fantastic and you would never guess that the fish sauce is the secret ingredient.
My private nuoc mam recipe came from a fellow here that was an SF medic in RVN. His recipe is my favorite--nuoc mam, lemon juice, hot peppers(I use habernero)a ton of sliced garlic, a little vinegar, water and sugar with julienned carrots. Let sit for a few days if you can wait that long. Seasons ANYTHING, I swear.
OK PC313, your response....
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