Soup Cookbook

Directions

• 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.
• 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.
• Variations: use green serrano chilies instead of dried red ones, 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.
• Chinese fish sauce is NOT a substitute.
• Posted by Stephen Ceideburg Dec 8 1989.
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