This stuff is rank. Imagine vegemite mixed with marmite mixed with rotten shrimp left out in the hot sun in a plastic bag near a cow farm that was once a pig farm and you might get close to what this smells like. It has such depth of aroma and such a sharpness that it made me convulse as if I had inhaled smelling salts. I just bought it this morning and it is going to be very challenging to cook with this thats for sure. This gem is the Vietnamese version of a Thai classic. You can read here to see a nice description of the Thai version.
"Ruoc" are small shrimps that are caught only during the rainy season. To prepare "mam ruoc", the "ruoc" are first cleaned and let dried under the sun for 3 months. They are then mixed with salt, grinded into powder and put in a jar and exposed to the sun for another 45 days. Sugar is then added to the mixture which is left fermented for 30 days. Finally the ruoc are dried again under the sun for 10 days and "mam ruoc" is now ready to be served, usually as sauce for various types of meat dishes. You can click here if you want to see some more seafood products.
I am going to make a green curry with shrimp dumplings with this probably over the weekend, lets see what happens.
This is a dollar sixty five that I will have for the rest of my life....its like a one time purchase...
14 comments:
Are you gonna wear a gas mask? Be sure to take a bath with tomoato soup before you go out in public!
Yea, you had me at "cow farm that used to be a pig farm". I hope to never, EVER have to smell that stuff. YIKEs!
http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/mamasays.htm
This has been a helpful site for me when "traveling to the unknown" in the kitchen.
Good yuck.
Think I'll have that prawn a la eggs that you posted a while ago... that ancient-prawn-a-la-pig farm-stuff sounds very scary!
Hmm. How much of this stuff does the recipe call for?
makes you wonder how this initially came out--seems like an awful lot of waiting.
Patience is a virtue, I suppose--tell us how it turns out!
So how long after we don't here from you should we worry and send help?
You're a brave man...
I'mone of those people really, really sensitive to smells...so I don't think this would ever happen for me.
WHY? I don't get it? If it's that bad....why cook with it?
bina: seriously you woould not want to
debbyd: good yuck LOL...
anette: poached eggs are always a safe bet
kitt: like 3 teaspoons but I am only using half of that
tavolini: I made a green curry paste and I am simmering chicken in it with coconut milk as I type
anndi: some call it brave others call it nuts...but I just HAVE to try new stuff...
beth: I am super sensitive to smells...I find the wild mushrooms mostly by their smell, so this stuff is a doozy.
The smart money is on you getting boinked by every stray cat in NYC when you cook with that stuff....Go back! Go back now!
buff: too late, I made a green curry and it smells nothing like the taste, its really good actually - I will post about it.
Yikes! Have you tried dried preserved shrimp? Talk about rank; it will make your hair fall out. And you are soooo right...you will have that jar for forever. why do they make such large jars of this putrid stuff when you only need an 1/8 of an ounce?
I have a good idea what it smells like. I put this fish stuff, plant food, on my garden and it smells putrid. If it gets on your clothes you are smelling it for weeks! The raspberries like it tho...
Sounds disgusting but must give things that umami taste. They love to ferment stuff don't they?
I love shrimp paste! LOL!We use shrimp paste in a lot of dishes here in the Philippines..
This is one of them: Crispy Pork in Shrimp paste
but we use sauteed with garlic,sweetened shrimp paste
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