Fluff’s Fiery Sauce

My ethnic background is Burmese-Chinese and Taiwanese, with Thai influences. I got a massive love for Southeast Asian food. What gets me sucked in is the complexity of spices, citrus, pickling, and raw flavors, with a hint of sweetness all packed in one punch in every bite. This practically tingles my tongue.

I’m a sauce girl. Maybe it’s from my Taiwanese side where the majority of the foods I liked, whether vegetable or meat, was boiled and you dip it for all that additional flavor…ugh now I’m hungry! It could also be my Burmese side where we consume a lot of spices and liquids in salads, rice, soups, etc.

Growing up, my dad was the one that cooked the most. He traveled to Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea to be a chef to provide funds for my grandparents and his siblings. His main dream was to immigrate to the United States for the American Dream. From all his stories, he busted ass, and his skills were a hybrid of Hong Kong, Japanese, Taiwanese, and Burmese flavors. When he came into the US legally, with the help of his oldest sister, Irene, both made sure to immigrate the rest of his siblings and eventually my mom. My dad would express his upbringing through his cooking. I definitely see where I get the cooking bug from. My mom cooks as well but hers is geared towards Taiwanese cooking. She has cooked outside of her comfort zone with this bomb Hungarian beef stew with tomatoes or pumpkin seed posole…The Mexican cooking is due to my stepdad always introducing legit Mexican food. Yooo definitely can’t beat homemade in either parents.

So with this particular sauce, its kind of my dad’s Burmese sauce which revolves around fish sauce, chilies, and garlic. Now my godparents are immigrants from Thailand. They also have a similar sauce which is known as Nam Jim Jaew. In Vietnam, its similar to Nuoc Cham sauce. The main ingredients in all these different variations is fish sauce, chilies, and lime juice. Clearly I really need you to know this…I’ve said it twice hahaha! You can add some sugar to balance it out if fish sauce is too much for you. Its a similar sauce that I’ve seen made with papaya salad. Man my mouth is watering just talking about this!

Anyways as a person that has manipulated recipes to my liking this is my version of this bomb sauce with Southeast Asian influences.

****I do want to specify because of the bulk amount and how often I make of this liquid gold, I usually eyeball the increments…But I will try to find a concrete set of measurements.

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Fiery “liquid gold” Sauce By Tiffany Sanders

Time: 30 mins

Equipment: trusty knife or a food processor

Quantity: Roughly 2 cups worth

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Ingredients:

1/4 C Fish Sauce (3 crab or Squid brand)*

2-3pc Fresh Thai Chilis: Mix of red and green

4-5pc Garlic cloves (It doesn’t hurt to add more if you want)

1/4 bunch of Cilantro

1-2pcs Shallots

1/4 C Lime Juice (fresh squeezed)

1 tsp Salt

2 tsp Sugar or half disc of palm sugar* (depending on how sweet or neutral you want the flavor to be)

1 layer Lemongrass

1 tbsp Red Chili Flakes

1/4 Red Onions

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Instructions:

1. Take all chilies, shallots, lemongrass, cilantro, garlic, and onion and chop till fine mince. You can use a food processor if you prefer.
2. Once minced fine place in bowl or container. Add the salt, red chili flake, and sugar/palm sugar and mix.
3. Add the fish sauce and lime juice and give it one final mix.
4. From here I like to do final tastings to just to make sure if this is to my liking.

Notes “*”:

1. If using palm sugar; grind or pulse that down till a fine grain so its easier to dissolve
2. Fish sauce: try aiming for 3 crabs brand or Squid. Refine fish sauce so far has not hit the taste I was looking for. However use whichever brand you think suits your needs.
3. Chilis: You can honestly use whatever you have. Sometimes I use jalapenos or serranos but majority of the time I use thai chilis

Should look something like this:

You can add this to marinate meats, or drizzle on top or cooked meat too. It’s great on fish, plain noodles and rice. See what I mean how its versatile. Versatile for SouthEast Asian dishes that is. 😁

Hope you enjoy this as much as I do

Until next time, I’ll fluff ya’ll later!