| 1 | 2 dried red chilies 2 cloves garlic ?t sugar 2 t fish sauce 1 t vinegar 1 t lemon juice mince chilies and garlic finely and place in a mortar. |
| 2 | Mash with the heel of a cleaver or pestle. |
| 3 | Add sugar and stir until it dissolves. |
| 4 | Add fish sauce, vinegar and lemon juice, stirring between each addition. |
| 5 | This makes enough for 2-4 people. |
| 6 | I almost always double the recipe just to make sure there"s enough. |
| 7 | I"ve kept it for long periods of time but unless you freeze it, it"s past it"s prime after a few days. |
| 8 | This is a basic chili sauce used for a dip for chicken or whatever. |
| 9 | Variations of this are found in cambodia, thailand and other southeast asian countries. |
| 10 | You can fiddle with it endlessly. |
| 11 | This is a good starting point. |
| 12 | The proportions shown here produce what i consider a mildly warm dip. |
| 13 | I generally use two to six times as many chilies, depending on their strength and how hot i want it. |
| 14 | Variations: use green serrano chilies instead of dried red ones, lime juice instead of the lemon juice or palm sugar instead of granulated. |
| 15 | If you make it in a food processor, don"t over process. |
| 16 | It should have small chunks of each ingredient rather than being a homogeneous liquid. |
| 17 | The taste is sour and hot, very puckery. |
| 18 | It"s great with poached or steamed chicken, duck or game hens. |
| 19 | Much better with basically bland dishes rather than something like curry which has it"s own blend of spices. |
| 20 | Good with chinese white-cut chicken or steamed ginger chicken with black bean sauce. |
| 21 | It"s truly addictive and i often serve it with meals that are not oriental in origin. |
| 22 | Should be good with a firm-fleshed white fish or boiled shrimp or crab. |
| 23 | Fish sauce is a liquid made with anchovies and salt. |
| 24 | It"s not really fishy tasting. |
| 25 | Look for it in the oriental section of supermarkets or at markets catering to asian clientele. |
| 26 | Tiparos is a good brand made in the philippines. |
| 27 | I prefer thai or vietnamese fish sauce, but they"ll probably be harder to find. |
| 28 | Another trick is to combine large quantities of the liquid ingredients and store them in the fridge. |
| 29 | 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. |
