Recipes

Appetizers, Snacks, Dips, Salsas and Spreads: Dips

Super Foods for Your Bones Slideshow Slideshow Foods Your Cat Should Never Eat Slideshow Dangerous Foods for Your Dog Slideshow

Everyday Dipping Sauce

This sauce appears on the table at most Vietnamese meals. A little bit sweet, a tad salty, pleasantly tangy, and gently spicy, it makes a pleasing refrain to the music that is Vietnamese food. Add a small handful of shredded carrots and you have a vegetable relish as well as a dipping sauce.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon chili-garlic sauce or finely chopped fresh hot red chilies (or 1 teaspoon dried red chili flakes)
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 3 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

Preparation:

1. Combine the garlic, sugar, and chili-garlic sauce, chilies, or flakes in the bowl of a mortar and mash to a paste. (Or combine them on your cutting board and mash to a coarse paste using a fork and the back of a spoon.)
2. Scrape the paste into a small bowl and stir in the fish sauce, water, and lime juice. Stir well to dissolve sugar.
3. Transfer to small serving bowls for dipping. Or transfer to a jar, cover, and refrigerate for up to 1 week.

Yield:
About 1/2 cup

Nutritional Information:
Per tablespoon: 20 calories, 1.4 g protein, 3.5 g carbohydrate, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 4 mg cholesterol, 0 g fiber, 510 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 4%.

Source: Vietnamese Cooking Made Easy by Nancie McDermott (Chronicle Books, 2005). Reprinted with permission.