"fish sauce" news and stories

Don't be afraid to cook fish -- it makes an easy, fast meal that you can serve with a flavorful fresh sauce. If it's in your budget, try wild salmon, which is naturally high in omega-3's. If not, go for tilapia instead -- it's inexpensive, easy to find and has a white, flaky texture that most people love.

To prepare the fish, preheat your oven to 400°F. Simply coat the fish with a light layer of olive oil spray and a pinch of salt and pepper. Place in a glass baking dish and bake for 10 to 12 minutes until the fish flakes with a fork. Top with a scoop of sauce and serve immediately.

See the Skinny Chef's recipes for sauce to serve with fish, after the jump.

This simple combination of skirt steak and cucumber salad is easily the steak dish I make most often. For the salad, combine two cucumbers, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced; one medium tomato, cored, seeded and thinly sliced, minced Thai chili to taste; a good palmful of fresh mint, finely chopped; 3-4 tablespoons of lime juice; and a splash of fish sauce (start with around a tablespoon if you're not a huge fan of the stuff, yet). Toss all ingredients to combine.

As we all know, steak lovers can be pretty particular about how they like their steak cooked. Having said that, I'm not going to insist on any specific method or level of doneness. Most recently, I grilled a 1.5 pound skirt steak, trimmed of excess fat and cut into three pieces, over a very hot (three seconds max with the hand test) fire of hardwood charcoal. If grilling is out of the question, broiling the same skirt steak works just fine. After resting the steak, cut it across the grain into thin strips. This shortens the muscle fibers and yields a more tender cut.

[Photo: Nick Vagnoni]

One of the things I look forward to the most when eating at a Thai or Laotian restaurant is the green papaya salad. This pungent mix of fish sauce, lime, chilis, dried shrimp, and green papaya strips never fails to make a bright burst on my palate along with some sticky rice. Plus, the papayas strips are very refreshing, and makes a nice starter dish, or a side dish to accompany the main entree. The recipe itself is quite simple, and would make a great addition to any Asian influenced meal at home.

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