Chris Shepherd – Sharing Food & Life Experiences

How to use fish sauce?

What I learned is that there should be two ingredients in fish sauces. There should be anchovies and there should be salt. And that's it. For a home consumer to use fish sauce make sure you are buying quality. And that's pretty easy to do at this point. Then it's like how do you balance something so super funky that you need something sweet, that you need something spicy, that you need something to tone it back. You need some acidic. And it's just learning about balance.  I think fish sauce is the perfect day to inspire you to learn balance in a dish because most cooks cook with salt, pepper and maybe a little bit of lemon juice or lime juice or something on a dish. But it's more about understanding the balance of sweetness, sour, the spice, the funk. Fish sauce is a perfect ingredient for young cooks, especially to understand their palate and to understand balance and flavors.

Where to use fish sauce?

If you are going to brines a chicken. I think for use it in a little bit of fish sauce into it gives it that “you'll never know it is there” spice or flavor profile. It is perfect in Bolognaise sauce. You had a little bit in your Bolognaise and it just gives it that umami richness. If you aren't looking to do predominantly a Vietnamese or Thai influenced flavor, that you're adding just a little bit of sodium and more of that richness of fermentation and that richness of umami, that flavor contrast that you can't find, that you can't buy, that it's there and you have to use these ingredients then I think for fish sauce is the absolutely perfect way to put those things in there. A little bit in a vinaigrette, a little bit in a braising.

Chef Chris Shepherd chicken wings recipe?

Caramelized fish sauce, chicken wings. Greatest thing ever. Roast the chicken wings in the oven or grill them.Then have a little sauté pan, toast a little bit of garlic, shaved garlic, add some honey or white sugar, caramelized that fish sauce, add lime juice. Toss the wings and you're good. A few chilies in there like Sereno or Jalapeño.