Recipe: Nuoc Cham - Vietnamese Hot Sauce (4)

Here are some Nuoc Cham recipes for you to try.

Happy Cooking,

Betsy

From: SOAR - http://godzilla.eecs.berkeley.edu/recipes

Title: Nuoc Cham (Vietnamese Chili Sauce for Dipping)
Categories: Other sauce, Dips
Yield: 1 servings
=20
2 Dried red chilies
2 Cloves garlic
1/2 ts Sugar
2 tb Fish sauce
1 tb Vinegar
1 tb Lemon juice
=20
The red stuff can be had in stores. It comes in a clear plastic
bottle with a green lid and a red rooster on the plastic. Or in
smaller glass jars. It's called "Tuong ot toi Viet Nam" (tung ot
toy) and is nothing more than red chiles mashed up with a bit of
garlic. You could easily make it by smashing up a handful of the
little red hot peppers and a couple of cloves of garlic in a mortar
and pestle. There's a similar Filipino sauce called "Sambal
Oeleck"++virtually the same but with the addition of vinegar. Here's
my favorite recipe for nuoc cham. I have some variants if you'd like
to see those too. I use it on a lot of stuff++it's very good with
poached or white cooked chicken, thousand year eggs, shrimp chips.
=20
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.
=20
From "Great Asia Steambook" by Irene Wong. Published by Taylor and
Ng, distributed by Random House. 1977. ISBN 0-912738-11-1.
=20
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.
=20
VARIATIONS: Use green serrano chilies instead of dried red ones,
thinly slice a red or green chili into rounds and toss them in, 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. Good with Chinese white-cut chicken or
Steamed Ginger Chicken with Black Bean sauce. It's truly addictive
and I often serve it with meals that are not Oriental in origin.
Should be good with a firm- fleshed white fish or boiled shrimp or
crab. Fish sauce is a liquid made with anchovies and salt. It's not
really fishy tasting. Look for it in the oriental section of
supermarkets or at markets catering to Asian clientele. Tiparos is a
good brand made in the Philippines. I prefer Thai or Vietnamese fish
sauce, but they'll probably be harder to find. A timesaver is to
combine large quantities of the liquid ingredients and store them in
the fridge. Then, when you want some Nuoc Cham, just chop up the
chilies and garlic, pound them with the sugar and add them to the
liquid.
=20
Posted by Stephen Ceideburg; March 7 1991.

Title: Nuoc Cham (Vietnamese Hot Sauce)
Categories: Extras, Vietnamese
Yield: 4 servings

1 Garlic clove minced
1/4 ts Pepper flakes red, crushed
2 tb Fish sauce
2 ts Sugar
1 ts Lime peel minced
2 ts Lime juice
3 tb Water

Increase the amount of red pepper flakes to suit
taste. Combine garlic, lime peel, and red pepper
flakes; then add lime juice, fish sauce, water, and
sugar. Whisk until all ingredients are blended and
sugar is dissolved.

Makes about 1/3 cup. Will keep short periods if
refrigerated. This is used almost daily by my
Vietnamese sister-in-law and I even became fond of it
myself served on vegetables, meats and fish.

From: Emma Norling's site: http://munkora.cs.mu.oz.au/~ejn/

Nuoc Cham

1 t Crushed hot red pepper
1 T distilled white vinegar
1/2 C fish sauce (nuoc mam, available at Asian Markets)
1/4 C fresh lime juice
1 small carrot-finely shredded, rinsed and squeezed dry
2 small garlic cloves, minced
1/2 C sugar

In a small dish, soak the hot pepper in the vinegar for 2 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine the fish sauce, lime juice, carrot, garlic and sugar. Stir in 1 1/2 cups warm water and the
hot pepper-vinegar mixture. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Serve at room temperature. Store the sauce in a jar in the
refrigerator for up to 3 days.

From: Lemon Grass and Galangal Cookbook
http://www.helix.net/~fraserg/lgg1/viet.htm

Nuoc Cham
(Garlic, Chili and Fish Sauce)

1/4 cup Fish sauce
1/4 cup Rice vinegar
2 tbsp Sugar
2 tbsp Lime juice
1 tbsp Garlic
1 tsp Chili paste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate
over night to blend flavors.

Yield - 1/2 cup