Mam Ca Linh (Fermented Ca Linh Fish in Sweet Brine), Made with Monk Fruit Sweetener

Method

1. Cut the heads, tails and innards from the ca linh fish. Mix 50ml white rice wine with water, wash the fish in it, rinse them several times in clean water and drain them.
2. Pack them into a glass jar in alternating layers of fish and coarse salt, using all 200g of salt.
3. Press the fish down firmly with bamboo slats or chopsticks, seal the jar and keep it somewhere dry and out of the sun for about 10 to 15 days so the fish takes up the salt.
4. After about 2 weeks, take out the jar, strain off the brine and mix 100g roasted rice powder evenly through the fish.
5. Press the fish down firmly again, seal the jar and keep it somewhere dry for about 2 more months.
6. Cook 50ml water with 450g kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, skim the foam once it boils and stir until the syrup thickens, then let it cool.
7. Pour all the syrup into the jar of fish, mix it through and leave it for another 2 to 3 months, at which point it is ready.

Tips

• Rinse the glass jar with boiling water and wipe it dry before use, and never use a plastic one.
• Strain off every trace of brine before the roasted rice powder (thinh) goes in, since any liquid left turns it pasty.
• Press the fish down firmly with bamboo slats, because any fish rising above the liquid spoils easily.
• Keep the jar somewhere dry and out of the sun for the whole fermenting time.
• The syrup has to be completely cool before it goes into the jar, as warm syrup turns the batch sour.