They’ll typically use vinegar for bite instead of lemons since it’s easier and cheaper.Īlso, restaurants will not always want to bother finely chopping garlic for your dipping sauce. In restaurants this is made in big batches. I’ve seen some recipes that swap out sugar for some other juices. Sometimes you’ll see people put their own twists on this recipe. You can keep in an airtight jar in the fridge as you work through it, but I prefer to make it fresh for each meal. They can adjust in their own bowls if they want extra fish sauce, lime, sugar, chilies or garlic. If you live in a household in which each person is going to be picky about their nước chấm, having a mellow base dipping sauce is ideal for that. If I’m doing it in bulk, I’ll throw them into a mini food processor, but if it’s just a few I love my garlic press as it’s a huge time saver, and easier to wash than the food processor. Finely chopping garlic is a very time consuming task if you’re doing it manually. Chiles are a must for me, and garlic is nice too. Optional additions – Add chopped chilies or finely chopped garlic to the sauce if you like. You can save the rest for making cocktails! If you use 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, you’ll end up with about 1.5 cups of simple syrup. Or if you want to get fancy, make a simple syrup by heating equal parts sugar and water in a pot over medium heat until fully dissolved. Either use a small amount of hot or warm water enough to dissolve the sugar, then fill in the rest with cold or filtered tap water. Sugar – If you’re trying to dissolve sugar in cold water and it’s too cold it takes a lot longer to fully dissolve, and you can’t adjust ingredients as you go as accurately. That stuff tastes slightly muted, and missing that amazing fresh citrus oil scent that doesn’t stick around too long.įish sauce – Slowly add the fish sauce in increments until you gradually reach what the recipe calls for, all the while mixing the sauce and tasting it along the way.Īfter you get used to making this, you can start to tell by the color of the sauce when you are getting close. The flavor and acidity of lemon or limes can vary from fruit to fruit, so use your taste buds.įollowing this recipe exactly each time can produce different results since limes or lemons can vary in liquid, pulp, acidity, etc.īut don’t even think about using bottled juice. If it’s not sour enough add some more citrus. So if you’re trying to conserve ingredients, or just not make so much that wouldn’t get used, know that the volume of water you start with, will be half of what you end up with in the final sauce.Ĭitrus – Start by mixing the water with sugar and lime or lemon. Water – Keep in mind that about half the volume of this sauce is water. This is to say that you should experiement with this recipe to land on ratios you like. I love my sauces but there’s a point where it can obliterate the taste of the other ingredients in your recipe. But folks must love it for it to be the businesses’ mainstay. You can adjust it to your own taste if needed depending on what it’s going with.įor example, local Vietnamese restaurants that sell roasted pork belly, will give you containers of this dipping sauce to go in styrofoam cups that are SUPER sweet, at least to my taste. Green Mango Salad with Shrimp (Gỏi Xoài)įor different dishes there are slight variations on nước chấm, but we will use this as a base recipe that works great for most things.sườn nướng (grilled pork chops, one of my favorites).bún thịt nướng (grilled pork with rice noodle and veggies).You’ll usually find a bowl of this sauce next to many Vietnamese foods. There are many types of sauces Vietnamese people use for different foods, but this is the main sauce, primarily seasoned with fish sauce. This nước chấm or fish sauce recipe is all about making it to fit your taste. Depending on the kind you use, you will need to adjust the amount used due to sodium levels and flavor which can vary from brand to brand. They’d keep a stash of premixed sauce ready in the fridge for regular meals throughout the week, but when a special dish is being made, they’d make a fresh batch for the meal or for the day, and it definitely tastes better. This is a dipping sauce I grew up with as a kid, with mom and grandma making this pretty often, for the dishes that specifically call for it, or sugarless versions of it just to dip boiled leafy veggies with (rau muống, or water spinach anyone?). Since it’s just about everywhere in Vietnamese cooking, it’s simply referred to as “dipping sauce”. Getting the hang of making this Vietnamese dipping sauce (nước chấm) is an important step to making your cuisine just right.
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