Various Vietnamese Sauces

Basic dipping sauce (nước chấm)

Used for general dipping, bún thịt nướng, bún chả, etc. If in doubt, try this one first.

• 5 water (warm)

• 1 fish sauce

• 1 sugar

• 1 lime juice

• 0.5 garlic (minced)

• 0.5 chili (minced)

• Mix everything together and let cool.

Sauce for vietnamese salads (nước mắm gỏi)

Used for dressing vietnamese salads (gỏi). This one doesn't have water because the liquids in the vegetables will dilute it.

• 3 fish sauce

• 2 sugar

• 2 lime juice

• 1 garlic (minced)

• 1 chili (minced)

• Mix everything together with other gỏi ingredients.

Calamansi sauce (nước mắm tắc)

This one is made with calamansi and is more fragrant and concentrated. Used for party/drinking foods (món nhậu) like snails, clams, etc.

• 1 water (warm)

• 1 calamansi (tắc)

• 2 fish sauce

• 3 sugar

• ⅓ ginger (minced)

• ⅓ chili (minced)

• ⅓ lemongrass (minced)

• ⅓ lime leaves (chiffonade)

• ⅓ cilantro (chopped)

• Mix everything together.

Green pepper sauce (muối ớt xanh)

Has a refreshing green pepper flavor. Used for grilled/boiled seafood.

Ratio by weight

• 2 thai green pepper, remove seeds *NOT GREEN BELL PEPPERS

• 1 sugar

• 1 condensed milk

• ⅔ salt

• 1 lime

• ⅓ lime leaves

• Blend everything together

Ginger fish sauce (nước mắm gừng)

Used for more gamey stuff like duck, goat, lamb, deer...

• 5 fish sauce

• 5 sugar

• 3 water

• 2 ginger (minced)

• 1 garlic (minced)

• 1 chili (minced)

Fermented anchovy sauce (mắm nêm)

For bánh xèo, other fried dishes, bún thịt nướng, spring rolls... Basically you can use this as a general dipping sauce, with a more umami, sweeter flavor than the basic nước chấm.

• 5 mắm nêm (bottled vietnamese fermented anchovy sauce)

• 5 pineapple (minced)

• 2 sugar

• 1 lime juice

• ½ garlic (minced)

• ½ shallots (minced)

• Water

Cook garlic + shallots in sauce pan until fragrant, put in the rest of the stuff, add hot water to taste.