Vietnamese Dipping Sauce Recipe
By
Anne Le
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Anne Le of Tamarine in Palo Alto, California, shares a CHOW Tip for Vietnamese dipping sauce; here’s the recipe so you can make it yourself.
What to buy: Prawn Brand Fish Sauce is Anne’s preferred brand. It can be found in Asian markets and online.
Sambal oelek is a straight-up chile sauce, without garlic or any other flavors added. It is commonly used in Asian cooking and can be found in the Asian section of your market or online.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 tablespoons Prawn Brand Fish Sauce
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon sambal oelek
INSTRUCTIONS
Combine all ingredients in a small nonreactive bowl, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Let sit about 5 minutes to allow flavors to combine, then add more sugar if necessary.
This recipe, while from a trusted source, may not have been tested by the CHOW food
team.
Wow, I can't believe I've finally found the dipping sauce that tastes just like all the vietnamese restaurants. I had a spring roll party this weekend and thought if i used David Chang's dipping sauce recipe (in his Momofuku cookbook), I couldn't lose. WRONG. No one used the dipping sauce, including myself. It didn't have the same pungency I was used to. THANK YOU, ANNE! I did alter it a bit. Instead of using the sambal, I added a chopped garlic and thai bird chile. PERFECT!
Hello Anne. Thanks for writing up your recipe it's perfect.
The thing about food is that opinions are subjective and you have shared your work. This also means that other opinions are enjoyable for others and that's the nature of the beast. Thanks fmed, digkv and Cremon for your opinions on this. Good to know that people enjoy variations of this recipe.
I agree with the other comments here. I would put in 2 tablespoons of water, add a VERY finely minced thai bird chili and one small clove of garlic, smashed and minced. Otherwise the sauce will be overpowering.
Does the recipe need water? depends on your liking. Some ppl like the sauce more diluted and some preferr a more concentrated taste. Yes I believe the recipe is on the acidic side. I make mine without the vinegar and use lime juice only. But again, the beauty of this sauce is you can vary it to your taste. I like mine concentrated, sweet, and hot.
Also MISSING from this recipe is a tsp of chopped garlic. You can also dice in a tsp of chopped fresh chili's if you like a "hot" sauce. This sauce keeps very well in the fridge so I tend to make a big batch and use it over time. Thank you Anne for the recipe.
I agree with fmed, the recipe needs water since those flavors are all so intense and strong and need to be dilluted a bit to be a sauce you can dip in without being too sour/salty . Also, adding some fresh garlic is very important as it adds so much flavor and I prefer fresh Thai bird's eye chilis rather than sambal as it tastes a lot fresher and cleaner.
I think this recipe needs about 3 tablespoons of water. Won't the above be too acid? (I think it will). I'll submit a hack.