Interesting you replied just now. Yesterday, I used fish sauce for the first time.
I made a curry, trying to make it a Thai-like curry.
I used the following (measurements are approximate):
Lots of cut up potatoes (probably about seven or eight)
Many baby carrots (I'm not sure how many, but enough to complement the potatoes)
Most of a very large white onion cut up into semi-small pieces
Two or three (I think two) heaping tablespoons of yellow madras curry powder
Some dashes of ginger
Garlic salt, salt, and garlic powder (I didn't use loads of any of these)
Four tablespoons of brown sugar
The juice of three limes
Two cans of fairly rich coconut milk
About 16-20oz of water
Somewhere between 1/2 and a whole teaspoon of fish sauce
Some lemon grass (not a lot)
Less than a half a teaspoon of maggi (I've never seen this in curry ingredients, but after tasting some in some pork and beans, I thought it would go well in curry; it did seem to go well, but I wouldn't recommend any more than I used here)
I cooked it in a large crock pot (which was full with the stuff) on high for about four hours. This was also my fist time using a crock pot. I think it worked well, because the potatoes had a lot more flavor than I think they otherwise would, had I cooked this in something else.
I just made up the recipe. It turned out rather powerful, but I like strong food. It was somewhat spicy. And, it was sweet and sour. If I was to do it again, I would use one less lime, less sugar, and more coconut milk and less water (although it was good how it was, I think it could be better with those changes). Either that, or add normal milk instead of water, perhaps (that's what I've seen recommended, anyway; I've never seen water recommended, though, but it can work, although it probably does change the style quite a bit). I think the amount of fish sauce I used here worked well. I hear you're not supposed to be able to taste the fish sauce, but that it enhances stuff about the food somehow. I think the ginger added to the spiciness (I don't think Thai curries usually have ginger, due to the tumeric, but I could be wrong). Oh, also, if I could do it again, I would want to use pineapple, or pineapple juice, and probably some fresh garlic. Also, I would have used chicken or shrimp if I had had any.
I mixed some rice in some of it that I ate (with it as powerful as it was, most people would likely enjoy it more with some soft, but not gummy, rice). I think rice complements it more when there's more coconut milk, though.
I would recommend against using lemons or lemon juice in this. Limes work much better (and by themselves), in my opinion. I made something similar to a curry like this a while back (although it wasn't curry), and then I used some lemon (but I had to add other things to dilute some undesirable effects of it).
The fish sauce I used was Squid Brand Fish Sauce, containing anchovy extract, salt and sugar.
