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Epicurious

Simple Dipping Sauce

Not every meal requires assembling a nuanced tart-sweet-salty-spicy dipping sauce. Sometimes, the food just needs a light dip in something straightforward. This sauce is basically diluted fish sauce emboldened by thin rings of fiery chiles. With only three ingredients, it is important to use high-quality fish sauce and chiles with fragrance and heat.

Recipe information

  • Yield

    makes about 1/3 cup

Ingredients

2 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons water
1 or 2 Thai or serrano chiles, thinly sliced

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    In a small bowl, combine the fish sauce and water. Taste and adjust the level of saltiness with more fish sauce or water as needed. Add the chiles and set aside for at least 15 minutes for the flavors to develop.

    Step 2

    Put the sauce on the table so that diners can serve themselves, or divide among individual dipping sauce bowls.

into the vietnamese kitchen.jpg
Reprinted with permission from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors by Andrea Nguyen. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Copyright © 2006.  Photographs by Leigh Beisch. Buy the full book from Amazon or Bookshop.
TagsSauceDipCondimentVietnameseSoutheast AsianAsianNut FreeGluten FreeDairy FreeEasyQuickNo-CookCookbooks
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