Nước chấm (Vietnamese Spicy Sauce)
We love a sauce here at The FatSteak Club. Smokey, creamy, salty, sweet; you name it, we've cooked with it. However, Nước chấm is different. Quite literally translated as "dipping sauce", this Vietnamese tabletop condiment is not just a meeting of flavours, but a full scale flaming explosion. Combining umami saltiness with sweet, sour, and lip-tingling spice, this sauce is incredibly simple to make but offers a whole new world of flavour.
I encountered this at my very first meal in Vietnam, eating Bún Bò Nam Bộ's eponymous dish in Hanoi. Even after months of traveling across Southeast Asia, I still remember this moment vividly, so it must have been some damn good sauce.
Step 1 - Make it
Find a suitable jar or vessel. If keeping in a glass jar, sterilise by carefully filling the jar with boiling water and sealing for a few minutes before rinsing out.
Juice your lime and finely mince your chillies and garlic.
Add the lime juice, rice vinegar, fish sauce, sugar and a pinch of salt to the jar, followed by the garlic and chillies.
Top up with boiling water. You may want to use less or more for a more concentrated or diluted sauce.
Cover and allow to cool. The sauce is good to go as soon as it’s cool, but the chillies and garlic will continue to infuse the longer you leave it.
Step 2 - Serve
To serve, either place in a dish for dipping and light drizzling or add to a noodle soup for an exciting burst of flavour.
Ingredients
100ml boiling water
1 lime
1-2 cloves of garlic
2 Thai Bird’s Eye chillies (or equivalent spicy chillies)
25ml rice wine vinegar
40ml fish sauce
4 Tsp sugar
Pinch of salt
