Name: Dipping sauce (Nuoc cham)
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Ingredients: 3 tbsp rice vinegar; 2 yellow or red birdseye chillies, sliced; 2 tbsp caster sugar; 2 tbsp lime juice; 3 tbsp fish sauce (nuoc mam); 2 cloves garlic, crushed

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Food and Travels

By Alastair Hendy

Published 2004

About

The classic dipping sauce found on every Vietnamese table. You can change the sauce to suit: add grated ginger, shredded carrot or white radish (mooli); use all lime juice and no vinegar; go more pungently Vietnamese and beat in a teaspoon of toasted shrimp paste; and for a milder sauce, stir in 2 tbsp water or coconut water - ideal for the dipping sauce to rice-paper-wrapped rolls. Makes a fab oil-free (= fat-free) salad dressing too.