Sometime during Lent I should do a long post on the various seafood-derived Asian condiments - total flavor superheroes, wildly underused outside of the slight bump in fish sauce's popularity. One reason for the post? Reminding myself not to underuse them, and when using them, to think beyond fish sauce.

In the meantime, something I will not be having during Lent:



Poorly-lit spareribs and carrots with rice.

The spareribs were rubbed with shrimp paste, gochujang (Korean chile paste), and ginger, laid on top of sliced carrots, covered in foil, and slow-cooked at 225 for 7 1/2 hours, before being drizzled with coconut treacle and baked at 350 for another 20 minutes (while the rice cooked).

Shrimp paste has a deep, complex flavor - everything else just rounds it out.  And carrots, I just like carrots and had some to use up.