Mom's steamed fish sauce

My mother has an endless passion for making fish sauce. And anyone from the West knows how to eat fish sauce or has smelled the fish sauce in the house.

Fish sauce is a product of the flood season, when the flood brings with it a lot of fish and shrimp. There is a surplus so people think of a way to save it for the difficult season by drying it, but the most popular way is to make fish sauce.

There are many ways to eat fish sauce: raw, stewed with vegetables, cooked with vermicelli soup... but my favorite is steamed fish sauce. This is also a favorite dish of my family, a specialty to treat friends from far away, but through my mother's hands, it has become an unforgettable flavor that I always remember no matter where I go.

To have a delicious bowl of steamed fish sauce, one must go through a long journey. From fresh freshwater fish, they are cleaned and marinated with salt, waiting for the right amount of time until the fish sauce becomes fermented, then they are taken out to be mixed with rice bran and sugar. If they cannot be eaten right away, the fish sauce is put back into the jar, covered tightly, and the rice bran cooks the fish like a type of fermentation. After enough time, it becomes the ingredient for steamed fish sauce, making the stomach full but the mouth still craving.

The finished fish sauce is stirred by my mother in a little boiling water, after removing the bones, a thick fish sauce essence is obtained. The good pork belly bought is washed in diluted salt water, minced, then mixed with the fish sauce essence just obtained, adding one or two duck eggs.

This mixture was seasoned by my mother, but only by the estimation of a skilled chef, not by testing it beforehand to see if it was just right. While putting the pot on the wood stove to simmer, my mother also prepared 2-3 beaten egg yolks, a few slices of chili, and a few slices of shallots, so that when the fish sauce was almost cooked, she could put it on the surface.

The stewed fish sauce is usually eaten with sour star fruit and green banana. Many people also like to eat it with sliced ​​eggplant, cucumber or long beans. The characteristic fish sauce flavor mixed with minced meat and eggs makes it less salty, and when paired with green banana and star fruit, it creates a total salty, sweet, sour and astringent taste. It is just a rustic dish but has been with me throughout my adult life.

Later, when I got married, my husband's family lived in the province but in the central area, so it was considered a city. In the city, it was not easy to find fish sauce, and when eating out, it was rare to find places that had fish sauce. I asked my mother to bring the fish sauce home so I could try making it myself. Everything was ready, so it was quite quick to finish the dish. I liked salted eggs, so I added some variations to the dish. The fish sauce bowl was served with a fragrant aroma that filled the whole house. I remembered my mother, every time the children asked for fish sauce, she had to wake up early to go to the market to choose each piece of good meat; when she came home, she had to wash the meat, chop it, light the stove, and watch the fire, which sometimes took the whole morning. But maybe that's why I felt more sorry for her, and when I was far away, I craved every dish that my mother had prepared for the family. Every time I picked up a piece of fish sauce, I felt nostalgic for the taste of home.

Source: https://giadinh.suckhoedoisong.vn/to-mam-chung-cua-ma-172241118154151866.htm