Adventures in Thai Cooking & Travel
Black Soy Sauce
Black Soy Sauce (Seiw Dam)
by Kasma Loha-unchit
Text Copyright © 1995 & 2000 Kasma Loha-unchit.
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See below for Recipes with Black Soy Sauce
Black Soy Sauce (Siew Dam) The
third kind of soy sauce used in this book is black soy sauce (siew dam) It
is very dark, almost black, in color and thick like light syrup in consistency. Its flavor is
sweet, almost like molasses. A good black soy is made by the Kwong Hung Seng company of Thailand,
which uses the dragon fly logo on the front label. Because this company makes three different
kinds of soy sauces bottled in the same kind of bottles, make sure the label in front or back
identifies it as "black soy sauce." The other two soy sauces they make are "thin soy sauce" and
"sweet soy sauce," which is much sweeter and thicker than "black soy sauce" and used for other
purposes not covered in this book. If you are unable to find black soy sauce, substitute with a
mixture of equal parts dark soy sauce and either palm sugar or blackstrap molasses.
[It does not] need to be refrigerated and keeps indefinitely in a cool place in your cupboard.
Text Copyright © 2000 Kasma Loha-unchit in Dancing Shrimp: Favorite Thai Recipes for Seafood. See pages 70.
This is just one of many listings in the "Alphabetical List of Ingredients" in chapter four (pages 49 to 73) of Dancing Shrimp: Favorite Thai Recipes for Seafood.
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Black Soy Sauce (See-yew Dam)
This
This is a rich and thick sauce, made by
fermenting soy sauce with sugar or molasses. Black in color, it has a delightful flavor and is
used as much to add sweetness as saltiness to rice and noodle dishes, soups and stews and various
stir-fries. Although I have included it in this section with sweeteners, it belongs equally in the
category with salty ingredients. Do not mistake this soy sauce with other dark Chinese and
Japanese soy sauces that aren't sweetened. To assure that you are getting the right kind, look for
a bottle that identifies the product as coming from Thailand. There are a few different brands,
but the most commonly carried in Asian markets in the West seems to be one with a dragonfly on the
label. Make sure the label says "black soy," as the "Dragon Fly" brand makes three kinds of soy
sauces with almost identical labels, save for the name of the sauce. Although it is sweet, it is
not the same as "sweet soy." The latter, used primarily for particular sweet snacks, is even
sweeter and is thick like ketchup. Black soy sauce does not need to be refrigerated after opening.
Text Copyright © 1995 Kasma Loha-unchit in It Rains Fishes. See page 63.
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Recipes with Black Soy Sauce (Seiw Dam) :
Main Courses
Spicy Basil Chicken (Pad Gkaprow Gai)
Spicy Chicken and Basil Fried Rice (Kao Pad Gkai Gkaprow)
Noodles
Stewed Beef Noodle Soup (Gkuay Dtiow Neau Nahm Khon)
Thai-style Stir Fried Noodles (Pad Thai)
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Text Copyright © Kasma Loha-unchit, 1995 in It Rains Fishes, and 2000 in Dancing Shrimp. All rights reserved.
Photographs Copyright © 2002 Dave Bayer. All rights reserved.
All material on this website is Copyright © 1995 to 2008 Kasma Loha-unchit. All rights reserved.
For comments, feedback or questions, contact Kasma.
Page added 1 June 2004. Last updated 13 August 2004.