Nước chấm
A tangy and slightly spicy Vietnamese dipping sauce for spring rolls

Angela got the recipe from one of our favorite Vietnamese restaurants and has been tinkering with it for years. I think it’s just about perfect. Nước chấm can also be made with lime juice instead of vinegar (or a combination of vinegar and lime). Lime juice can be more acidic than rice vinegar (or at least it seems to have a sharper tartness) so start with 1 T. lime juice and add more if needed. At the table, we always serve small individual portions of nước chấm with a little bowl of chili garlic sauce on the side, so we can each adjust the spiciness to our own preferences.

This recipe makes a very thin sauce, so instead of dipping the spring rolls into it, I generally roll my spring roll, bite off one end, and then spoon the sauce into the roll (I don’t ever add it to the ingredients before rolling, because the roll won’t stick together). It also makes a great salad dressing, adding a few tablespoons of oil (peanut, vegetable, or sesame). If we ever have any leftover ingredients from our Vietnamese spring roll nights, we make a salad the next day for lunch, dressing it with nước chấm. It also makes a great dressing for Thai grilled beef salad, though I adjust the recipe slightly by adding a bit more garlic. As we have, over the years, adjusted the recipe that was first given to us, we hope you will find this recipe a useful jumping off point for your own exploration of Vietnamese flavors.

Ingredients:

· ½ c. water

· 2 T. palm sugar (or coconut sugar or light brown sugar)

· 2 T. rice wine vinegar

· 1 T. fish sauce

· 1 T. chili garlic sauce

Directions:

1. Heat water and sugar in small saucepan, stirring until dissolved. Cool.

2. Add the sugar water, rice vinegar, fish sauce, and chili garlic sauce to a glass jar (with a lid).

3. Shake, cover and chill for at least 20 minutes before serving.