“Unlike
Chinese-style plum sauce, Japanese-style wasabi or American ketchup or barbeque
sauce, Vietnamese mixed fish sauce seems to express the philosophy of life, ‘cause
it has enough the sourness, pungency, saltiness, and sweetness….as in life [..]
The taste of fish sauce is salty but
flavorful, and very sophisticated, ceremonious, popular, but greatly delicate. [...]The
aftertaste seems to deeply pervade the memory and sentiment of any Vietnamese
people wherever they are. Though the drop of fish sauce is tiny, its great
flavor is really a part of the spirit of the country, of the people. It itself
is the flavor of the home country in fadeless memory of every Vietnamese person
far away, wherever they live from Austin to Australia”.
Further
to the general introduction about Vietnamese fish sauce, this post will focus
on recipe of derivatives from nước
mắm, different kinds of dipping condiments for numerous dishes
of Vietnam. For those who attempt to make Vietnamese food, nước chấm is a very important step to make your
dish right and flavorful. The following recipes will provide you with exact
ingredients and how to make your dipping sauce blow your dishes.
1. Dipping sauce
for spring rolls
Ingredients:
6 tbsp of water
2 tbsp of sugar
2 tbsp of fish sauce
1 1/2 to 2 tbsp of fresh lime or lemon juice
Finely chopped Garlic and Chili
¼ tbsp of ground black pepper
Instructions:
Instructions:
It is an important tip when preparing dipping sauce
in Vietnamese style is that the main ingredients should be well mixed to fit
your taste first before adding optional ones (garlic, chili and pepper).
Because after adding those spices, you will find it difficult to adjust the
right flavor you want that may affect your dishes later.
In general, nước chấm is mixed according to the ratio
3:1:1:1 for water, sugar, fish sauce, lime juice respectively. However, this
ratio can be adjusted to fit your taste and dependent on your type of fish
sauce.
First, combine water and sugar in a bowl. Add lime
or lemon juice in increments. Add fish sauce in increments until you like how
it tastes. Top with garlic and chilies.
It is noted that garlic and chili should be chopped
into fine bits as tiny as possible so that they can elegantly float on the
surface of the dipping sauce.
Outcome: A bowl of blended dipping sauce has apricot
yellow like honey with the distinctive taste: a little sourness of lime juice,
the sweetness of sugar, the pungency of garlic, the aroma of black pepper,
spotted with some slices of spicy chili, combined with carrot or green papaya slices.
2. Dipping sauce
for Bánh xèo
Bánh xèo, literally "sizzling cake", named for the loud
sizzling sound it makes when the rice batter is poured into the hot skillet are
Vietnamese savory fried pancakes.
Bánh xèo is originated from the Central region where it is often wrapped in
fresh rice paper and then dipped in a special sauce which consists of the following
ingredients:
Ingredients:
– 150g of ground pork liver (or
chicken liver)
– 1 cup of ground and toasted peanut
– 2 tbsp of ground sesame
– 4-5 cloves of garlic, finely ground
– 2 tbsp of fish sauce
– Salt/ soup powder/ seasonings
– 2 tbsp of soy bean sauce
– 2 tsp of tapioca starch
– 2 tbsp of vegetable oil
Instructions:
Step 1. Mince pork liver or slice into small piece and grind using
blender or food processor. Mix the liver with fish sauce, 1/2 of the chopped
garlic (soup powder and seasonings) for at least 20 minutes.
Step 2. Heat the oil, fry garlic until it smells good, then add liver, stir well until thoroughly cooked. Add about 2 cup of water. When the liver and water boil, add 2 tbsp of soy bean sauce. Add ground and toasted peanut and sesame.
Step 3. Seasoning to fit your taste. Dissolve tapioca starch in water then add to the above pan to create viscosity. The outcome must smell good and buttery, a little bit sweet but not salty, and a little bit viscous but not watery.
3. Dipping sauce
for Bánh cuốn
Different from others from bánh family, the dipping sauce of bánh cuốn follows the ratio: 1 sugar +
1/2 vinegar + 1 1/2 fish sauce + 3-4 warm water (chicken boiling water or fresh
coconut extract can be used instead if prefer). Add sliced or chopped chili and
lime or mandarin. In this case, mandarin carries special attractive aroma and
flavor for the sauce.
To prepare dipping sauce for bánh cuốn, you first boil down sugar until it dissolves and
turns into light yellow. Add fish sauce and more water (chicken boiling water
is the best choice). Add mandarin juice, chili, fried shallots and pepper when serving. This method produces
the best dipping sauce however it is difficult to achieve because the sugar
easily get burnt and we don’t know the right time to add vinegar, fish sauce
and water.
4. Dipping sauce
for Bún chả
Ingredients:
- 2 chillies
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 2 limes
- 100ml vinegar
- 200g green papaya
- 1 carrot
- 5 tbsp of fish sauce
- 100ml water
Vegetable
pickles:
- Peel off the papaya, remove its core, cut off the stalk, soak the
papaya in salty water for 30 minutes.
- Peel off the carrot, divide equally into 3 pieces.
- Chop the chilies into fine bits.
- Mince garlic into fine bits.
- Chip carrot and papaya into thin slice, you may also carve flower from
these two ingredients.
- Take lime juice, remove its seeds.
- After removing salt water, add 2 tbsp of sugar, 1 tbsp of soup powder,
3 tbsp of lime juice, ½ chopped chili, shake them all, and seasoning to fit
your taste.
- Keep the carrot and papaya pickles for 10 minutes.
Dipping sauce:
- Follow the ratio of 5 water : 2 fish sauce : 1 lime
juice : 1 ½ sugar, add chopped garlic and chilli. Seasoning to fit your taste.
- Boil the dipping sauce until it’s warm.
- Scoop the sauce out into bowls, add vegetable
pickles and grilled chopped meat, served with rice vermicelli.
5. Dipping sauce
for Steamed Snails
Dipping sauce
is supposed to be the soul of Snail dishes with a combination of variety of
ingredients elevating their flavor. In Vietnam, snails are among the most
popular street side food for all ages, especially pregnant women (I have not
been pregnant ever so I don’t know why it is that fact). Street side stalls of
snails grow as powerful as mushroom to meet the increasing demand for this kind
of delicious snack. However, what differentiates such stalls from one another
significantly lies in flavor (or quality) of snail dipping sauce. Words of
mouth from female tasters regarding the dish and its accompanied sauce may
decide the fate of one stall.
If you wanna try doing a business in this promising industry, you must
own a delicate sense of taste and know how to blow some magic to the dipping
sauce. The instruction given below may be useful. Try and check it out
Ingredients:
2 tbsp of fish sauce
1 tbsp of water
1 tbsp of mandarin/lime juice
3 tbsp of sugar
Spices: finely-chopped ginger, chili, garlic, lemongrass,
lime leaves
Instructions:
- Mix fish sauce, water and sugar according to the
ratio 2:1:3, boil to dissolve the sugar well. Cool it down before adding
chopped ginger, garlic, chili, lime juice and stir well.
- Top with chopped lime leaves and lemongrass. If
prefer more spicy taste, you can add more chili or minced chili to enhance the
flavor.
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| How deliciously buttery! |
