Jim's Seafood Sauce

Bangkok is honestly like a playground

Do you want to taste it? I'm scared, Janet. You could always get someone else to taste it

Gordon is going to be asking for a glass of milk. Oh, my God. Ha, ha, ha, ha

One of my favorite segments, y'all, passport recipes

And I'm so lucky that my friend Claire flew in from New York

to show me some sauces, and they're fairly quick. And Claire just said this one takes under a minute

Now, I'm seeing up there on our menu board that you call this Nam Jim Seafood

Nam Jim. Nam is a liquid, and Jim is a taste. So in Thailand, when you're going around

and you're eating all the street food, everything comes with its own sauce. So everything is Nam Jim something

So this is Nam Jim Seafood. Oh, okay. So this is made for any kind of grilled, fried fish, shrimp

Okay. All right, tell me what to do. I see you got some gloves lined up

So this is another glove act. I'm feeling a little risky. All right, what are we doing

So this one, you would normally use Thai chilies. Tell me what kind of pepper this is. These are serranos, which have more heat than a jalapeno

Oh, really? So this one can be spicy. Are we going to seed it

No, we're going to leave the seeds in. But we're going to temper it

You know, we use the fish sauce and the lime and the sugar. Should I just put these in here

You can give them a really rough chop if you want, just one or two pieces, just so they fit in more easily

Or you can just throw them in. Okay, I'll just cut them. Yeah, that's perfect, and then we'll toss them in this you would normally make with Thai chilies

Which you can find at a lot of supermarkets you can find those at Asian store They're the small ones and they're red and green if you can't find them the serranos are a really good substitute

Okay, so then we can add about you can use two to three garlic. I like mine a little garlicky

Yeah, let's do three So in Thailand what I think is so interesting is

Cilantro sometimes you can find it in a supermarket and you find it with the roots still on really white root It hairy Right And in Thailand that is key They use that in curry paste They use it in sauces I never seen cilantro with a root

You can always ask for it if you go to, like, maybe a Mexican supermarket. It's actually a really lovely, light flavor

that you would incorporate into this sauce. Okay. We didn't find it, so we're going to just use the stem

Oh, we're using the stem. Yeah, the stem. We're not using the leaf part

No, we'll use the leaf to garnish it, but the stem has a lot of flavor in it. Oh, it does

It adds a lot of texture. Yeah, a lot of people don't use it. And I always cut that off. I know

A lot of people do, but it's so nice in here. It adds more texture. It's still really cilantro-y

Yeah, taste it. It has the same flavor. Absolutely. Yeah, and the root is very similar

and it's just a little bit more body. I did not know that. I learned something

so no longer will I be cutting the stems off of cilantro. So let's get about one tablespoon of sugar in here. Okay

And this is what's going to make that heat more moderate. Okay. And we can adjust

If it's too spicy, then we'll add more. Then we can go ahead and we need about two tablespoons

So we can just squeeze that in there. And this is all, like, preference. If you go to one seafood stand, you're walking down the streets

and you stop and you eat some grilled shrimp. Uh-huh. One vendor is going to make this really fiery, you know, really garlicky

Yeah. And then you could go, you know, another 100 feet, and you eat some more grilled seafood

and someone's going to make it really sweet, maybe more limey. So it's like an outdoor yard sale almost where you just go from

Bangkok is honestly like a playground. Let's do, we're going to do about two tablespoons of the fish sauce

Okay. I've noticed that this is like the fourth or fifth sauce you've taught me

And most of them have fish sauce in them. It's the main seasoning as opposed to salt

There's a lot of salt in fish sauce, isn't it? Yeah, it's really salty

So then we added a pinch of salt already. And so if we were making this in a mortar and pestle

which you would traditionally make this with, so you pound it, the reason you use salt

is because it adds some texture, some grit, so it helps pound. So we've made it a lot easier with..

You ready? Yes. So just pulse it. We just want to get that to a Not puree but yeah You can let it go a little longer probably Is it ready to go into our bowl Yeah let see Let taste it

What does it need? I'm going to add a little bit more lime. All right. I have to tell y'all, Claire came over the other night

and cooked us a Thai meal. And you would not believe how laborious it was

It's a lot of ingredients in Thai food. I sat there and watched her with all these ingredients that I had never seen or heard of before

The green papaya. But she touched every piece and everything was like poetry that you did

You know, Peggy has always said, a salad is a salad, but if you want to make it a wonderful salad

the cuts have to be a certain way and just right. And she's right

And I enjoyed the beauty of your slicing. Thank you. Of all those things that I still don't know what they are

We'll do another lesson. So this is pretty much it. Okay. It's those ingredients that we blended

Okay. And then... Did it taste hot to you? It's spicy. Not crazy spicy

But, you know, we could always add more sugar to it. We could add more lime

Do you want to taste it? Yes, I'm going to... We could always get someone else to taste it

They could be the guinea pig. I'm going to taste a little bit. Okay

Yeah, it's just really fresh. And the longer it sits, actually, the less heat it'll be

These swamps don't look done. We could throw them back on the grill. Let's throw them back on the grill

Okay, so let's just... Oh, here comes Jamie Dean. He sees us

Oh, now that the food is ready? Come on, Jamie, get in there. Try some. Come on, Jamie. Taste it, man

because your mother's a little shy on the pot. All right, you want me to man the shrimp and you taste the sauce

Yes, yes. I'll get this. Come on in, Jamie. This sauce might be a little bit hotter, son

Hello, Claire. Hello, get in there. Try it. All right, there's the piece that I kind of ate off of

I'm scared, Jamie. I don be scared So you taste and then ooh that was a pretty big bite It a safe bite You like the sauce Yeah It good It not hard to eat

Not too spicy. No, it ain't too spicy. That is delicious. And the fish sauce, right

It's not too stinky. I'm going to squirt a little bit more of the fresh lime on it, Claire

Okay. Is that all right? Of course. All right. Would you like one of your shrimp

Who's the shrimp? Who's the shrimp? Who's the shrimp? Who's the shrimp? Who's the shrimp? Who's the shrimp? Who's the shrimp? Who's the shrimp? It kind of picks up steam, though

It does. It does. It builds. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. The shrimp is perfect

Thank you. Claire just said the shrimp was perfect. So quickly, Claire, tell us everything you would use that sauce for

I would grill some fish and use it for that. I would steam some mussels

And you would put this on after the fish is prepared? After the fish is prepared, usually it's in a little side

They serve everything in little plastic bags when you buy it on the street. So they give you a little plastic bag, and you take it home

and you would eat your grilled fish, steamed mussels, grilled clams. In Thailand, everything you get is accompanied by a sauce

You would love, because you said how much you love condiments. I love condiments

You know, whether it's chicken satay. That's why I was so excited about you coming and showing us these. Yeah, so there's always a sauce that goes with whatever you buy

And don't forget now, all these recipes that Claire has shared with us

you can find right here on the network. So let's go over here and see which of our friends are brave enough to join us

Who would like to try Nom... Well, darling, you're right there, and there's your toothpicks

Eager and ready. Look at her. She's bathing that shrimp good. You like hot stuff

Well, y'all enjoy. And Claire, I want to thank you so much for flying in from New York to be with us

Thank you, Claire. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank y'all

Y'all enjoy. Don't forget, you can find them on the network