Nước Mắm
This recipe makes 3 cups of nước mắm—we recommend cutting down to a half or a fourth if using for only a few meals.
Ingredients:
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup fresh-squeezed lime juice
1 cup coconut water
1/2 cup Red Boat fish sauce
1.5 T chili garlic sauce
8 T sugar
Sliced jalapenos or chili peppers
The Beta:
This recipe only has one step: Mix the ingredients and enjoy this flavor bomb with pretty much anything.
Flavor Bomb, Yeah Boyee! (outdated Flavor Flav reference)
Nước mắm is a staple for many Vietnamese meals, and though it literally means fish sauce, the term is commonly used to refer to the dipping sauce described above. We use this on nights when we fry tofu, have people over for spring rolls, or when we make vermicelli or rice bowls, usually putting a small sauce bowl on the table with roughly a quarter cup of nước mắm for dipping.
This is Tom’s ideal recipe, but he doesn’t make it exactly this way every time. You can certainly swap out the Red Boat for a number of other brands including Squid or Three Crabs, though Tom learned from his mom to reserve these less expensive fish sauces for broths where the fish sauce doesn’t take center stage. You can also swap the coconut water for plain ol’ tap water or use honey instead of sugar—both of these will affect the sweetness, so you’ll have to adjust accordingly. Of course, if you don’t like spice, you can also cut the peppers or have bowls with and without. There are many variations of this sauce in Vietnam, so the bottom line is figure out how you like it and make it that way. Disclaimer: This recipe yields about three cups—in our house of three we use a cup a week or more. We store ours in a glass jar in the refrigerator and have used the same batch for up to a month.