Vietnamese Chili Sauce

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Vietnamese Chili Sauce

 

2 dried red chilies

2 cloves garlic

1/2 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

 

Mince chilies and garlic finely and place in a mortar. Mash with the heel of a

cleaver or pestle. Add sugar and stir until it dissolves. Add fish sauce,

vinegar and lemon juice, stirring between each addition. This makes enough for 2

to 4 people. I almost always double the recipe just to make sure there's enough.

I've kept it for long periods of time but unless you freeze it, it's past it's

prime after a few days. This is a basic chili sauce used for a dip for chicken

or whatever.

Variations of this are found in Cambodia, Thailand and other Southeast Asian

countries. You can fiddle with it endlessly. This is a good starting point. The

proportions shown here produce what I consider a mildly warm dip. I generally

use two to six times as many chilies, depending on their strength and how hot I

want it.

Variations: use green serrano chilies instead of dried red ones, lime juice

instead of the lemon juice or palm sugar instead of granulated. If you make it

in a food processor, don't over process. It should have small chunks of each

ingredient rather than being a homogeneous liquid.

The taste is sour and hot, very puckery. It's great with poached or steamed

chicken, duck or game hens. Much better with basically bland dishes rather than

something like curry which has it's own blend of spices.

 

 

 

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