Vietnamese Nam Cham Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

• ½ lime juice
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• ¼ cup white vinegar
• ½ cup water
• 5 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 or 2 Thai chillies, thinly sliced (optional)

Method

1. Combine the lime juice, sugar, vinegar and water, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
2. Add fish sauce, garlic and chilli. Makes approximately 1 cup
3. Taste and adjust the flavours to your liking, balancing out the sour, sweet, salty and spicy. Aim for a bold, strong flavour – perhaps a little stronger than what you’d normally like. This sauce is likely to be used to add final flavour to foods wrapped in lettuce or herbs, which are not salted and therefore need a little lift to heighten the overall eating

Advance Preparation

This sauce may be prepared early in the day and left to sit at room temperature. Add 1 thinly grated carrot to the sauce to add extra sweetness. Drain carrot after 2 to 3 hours, or overnight. Use the pickled carrot for spring roll filling.

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