Nuoc Cham

There are many versions of this popular chili dipping sauce, varying in degrees of sweet, sour and chili. Some people add rice vinegar to the mix. Depending on the amount of liquid added, this recipe makes about 200 ml/7 fl oz/scant 1 cup, which is plenty for all the dishes. If you don't use it all in one sitting, it will keep well in the refrigerator for about two weeks. If you are doing a lot of Vietnamese cooking, it is an extremely handy sauce to have ready-made in quantity.

Ingredients:

4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

2 red Thai chilies, seeded and roughly chopped

15-20 ml/3-4 teaspoon sugar

Juice of 1 lime

60 ml/4 tablespoons nuoc mam

Method:

Using a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic with the chilies and sugar and grind to make a paste. Squeeze in the lime juice, add the nuoc mam and then stir in 60-75 ml/4-5 tablespoons water, according to taste. Blend well.