Korean Salted Shrimp
saewoo jeot.
“ SAY - OOH - JUT ”
What is salted shrimp?
Salted or fermented shrimp is a heavily salted product that has fermented to a stinky, flavourful ingredient. Believe it or not, this is a subtler alternative to fish sauce. This is ideal when you want to enhance the flavour of a dish with salt that include faint notes of seafood. People who detest fish sauce may add salted shrimp instead to kimchi for a similar effect.
When do I use it?
You can add it to kimchi instead of fish sauce. Use it to deliciously season soups or stews. Make a simple dip by mixing it with GOCHUGARU (Korean Red Pepper powder) + green onions + garlic + chopped spicy chilli pepper to eat with meats or to mix with a bowl of hot rice. Add a bit when stir-frying zucchini as a side dish. Sliced BOSSAM (boiled pork) or JOKBAL (braised pig trotters) can be eaten dipped in just straight up salted shrimp.
It’s not necessarily an essential ingredient, but even if you buy one container to season Korean steamed eggs (No-fuss microwave steamed eggs how-to here), I think you’ll find it’s worth your while!
Where do i buy it?
You will find it in the refrigerated section at the Korean grocery store.
What if I can’t find salted shrimp?
Sometimes it may be hard to get to a Korean grocery store, or maybe there isn’t one in your vicinity at all. Because this is refrigerated product, you won’t find it easily online (read: not on Amazon), but as always, there are substitutes available. Fish sauce is a good staple to have. Just stop smelling it straight out of the bottle and you will begin to appreciate the zing it can give to your cooking. Red Boat Fish Sauce is a popular one that many like. Here’s another alternative that I often find on sale.
Alternatively, you can use fish paste ( more commonly a South-East Asian ingredient). Use it sparingly- approximately 10% of what the recipe requires. Lastly, you use dried shrimp in equal amounts. This blog explains it in further detail.
How do I store it?
Keep it in the fridge. Or put a small amount in the fridge and keep the big container in the freezer to last longer. In fact, if you have freezer space, you can keep the whole thing there because this won’t freeze.
Wikipedia will tell you how many kinds of shrimp can be used to make this salty, fermented sauce. Spoiler alert: Lots. Depends on the shrimp in the ocean at the time of the year.
This is shrimp, salt and fermentation, ladies and gentlemen. And it is delightful!
You may also be interested in: How to Store Korean Ingredients
