It is the magic in probably every Asian dish you’ve ever had. Similar to sesame oil, a little goes a long way. I think on Serious Eats, Kenji has an article on Fish Sauce. It wasn’t until after reading that I started using it. It’s a pretty awesome umami flavor bomb kind of ingredient.
@Eric_Majkut I have a buddy that always makes muffuletta sandwiches. His vary only a little. For one, he didn’t make homemade muffuletta, and holy cow yours looked AMAZING. But he does get Italian rolls with sesame (actual Muffuletta rolls are hard to get,) cut into approximate sandwich serving widths. Then he opens them flat and lightly toasts them in the oven with the insides facing up, applies the cheese to each side, then continues toasting until it’s mostly melted. Only then does he remove and add the rest of the ingredients to the sandwich. The wet muffaletta then doesn’t soak the sandwich, instead, it softens the inside. When you bite in you get a slight crunch from the outside of the roll, the warm cheese, and the powerful flavor bomb of the meat and muffuletta.
As I understand the hot vs cold for that sandwich is a big debate point. Tons of people prefer it only one way, usually whichever way they first tried it. If you aren’t hard set on cold, give the toasted version a shot. It’s pretty tasty.
I’m really sorry to keep asking dumb questions, I like this thread more than recipes and it helps me learn better. So, for the shrimp, didnyou defrost them first, or can you put them on grill frozen? If you did what is your method of choice? Also, when you do your corn on grill, do you do it in the husk? Or not? I didn’t see any grill marks, so was wondering how you like to do that.
Not sure how Fishbreath does corn on the grill but I husk it first, wrap it in foil with a dab of butter and grill it that way. Turn it occasionally cooking it for about 12 -15 minutes.
Here’s how I do it. I like char, and I do it in the husk:
I pull back the husk to get rid of as much corn silk as I can, and then fold the husk back to its normal position (removing some of the outer extra dry leaves if they exist).
Soak ears with husk in water for 10-15 minutes
Shake off excess water and put on medium-hot grill for 10 minutes or so (turning occasionally)
Pull the husk back, brush with butter/oil (and any other seasonings) and put back on the grill for 3-4 minutes or so more
I’ve been craving some corn-on-the-cob lately, but I can’t seem to find any in stores around here right now.
The one thing I would add is that when I do it that way, I blacken the crap out of the husk. Won’t hurt the inside a bit. Also like to throw some salt in the water and a bit of lime juice.
Oh, and @Eric_Majkut, I can’t stand olives, but that sandwich looked amazing.
Weighing in along with everyone else, I soak it in water then put it straight on the grill, no husking of any sort, and turn it occasionally. Steams real nice on the inside. That said, I’m definitely trying @CraigM’s way one of these days.
So good. Lots of variations out there too, sometimes with herbs, chili powder and/and cotija cheese (along with the mayo which holds everything together).
Grillathon Day 3 (Live Free or Thai Hard) featured Thai pork skewers, and a reprise of yesterday’s favorites, grilled tomatoes and corn. The pork especially was superb. I think it was my favorite protein of the Grillathon. (Marinade recipe is below.)
1 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 stalk lemongrass, thinly sliced (or 2 tbsp lemongrass paste)
2 pieces star anise
1 two-inch cinnamon stick
2 tsp coriander seeds, toasted and ground
2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp white vinegar
Mix the sugar into the water in a small saucepan. Add lemongrass, anise, cinnamon, coriander, and pepper. Boil for 30 seconds, remove from heat, transfer to a bowl, and refrigerate until fully cooled. Mix in the remaining ingredients.
Above, I cubed a pork shoulder for the skewers. The recipe I saw it with originally called for pork belly, but my grocery store didn’t have any.
Thanks for the recipe. It looks awesome. I do have two questions. I am not a major fan of the “fish flavor”. How strong of a flavor is that fish sauce and is there a suitable replacement if I find the flavor too fishy for me?
PS: I also do corn in the husk presoaked but when Im wanting no husk mess to deal with once the food is ready, the foil method works great and the corn is ready off the grill. Corn is pretty simple when it comes right down to it.
Yeah. Mayo on corn with cheese is a version of of corn. I personally think it’s rather off. But OTOH I have recently been using mayo on the outside of grilled cheese sandwiches.
Let’s be real. What is good mayo but eggs and vinegar. Egg is used to crisp and brown many foods. An egg wash can be water or milk and other things. So what is so wrong with using mayo? It’s just a simple emulsion of the things that you think are good. So why the fuck not? Sure, slathering a crapload of mayo on anything is gross.
But. A thin layer of egg and vinegar emulsion on a thing to create a brown or moist exterior seems to be a way to go. I guess it’s the way it’s written. Mayo? Disgusting. Egg and vinegar emulsion? Genius!
I’ll continue to experiment with mayo. It works. I have even made my own. YMMV.
I have no problem with mayo, either in general or on corn. But it does sound gross at first blush.
Making home made mayo is in fact fun and easy, as long as you trust your eggs (or can get pasteurized ones). I do it with some regularity for burgers (and fries, for whom mayo is the true proper condiment), and it really only takes a couple minutes once our know how (and if you have a stick blender)
Though the marinade smelled strongly of fish, I would say there was no fish flavor in the end product. (People were saying it’s all umami in the end, and that seems right to me.)
If you’re more sensitive to it than I am, you could probably get away with adding another 2 tbsp of soy sauce in place of the fish sauce. It seemed to me to be the spices which controlled the end flavor more than the liquids. Try it with the fish sauce, though. It’s really good.
