Mắm Nêm is a very pungent Vietnamese sauce made with fermented anchovy, crushed pineapples, sugar, lemon juice, Thai chili pepper, lemongrass and garlic. It is a hard-core alternative to wherever the more widely known Vietnamese Fish Sauce Dipping Sauce (Nuoc Mam Cham) is used, and best alongside beef dishes as in Vietnamese Lemongrass Grilled Beef (Bo Nuong Vi).
Mam Nem is an acquired taste, but once you are used to it, it's all about the Mam Nem. Make sure not to get any on your clothes. And it goes without saying, no contact with a significant other until after brushing ;-)
Vietnamese Fermented Anchovy Dipping Sauce Recipe (Mam Nem)
Makes about 1 cup
Ingredients
1/4 cup bottled Mắm Nêm Pha Sẵn sauce (don't let the name of the bottled sauce fool you. Although it translates to "ready-to-eat," you will need the rest of these ingredients to make a tasty sauce and less pungent sauce)
1/2 cup crushed pineapples (preferably, fresh but canned will also do)
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 Thai chili pepper (mince finely)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic (mince finely)
1 tablespoon minced lemongrass
Instructions
In a small bowl, mix together Mắm Nêm Pha Sẵn sauce, crushed pineapples, sugar, lemon juice, and chili pepper.
In a small pan, heat up vegetable oil on medium high. Add garlic and lemongrass and sauté until fragrant.
Transfer the fried garlic and lemongrass to the Mắm Nêm mixture and mix until combined. If sauce is too thick, mix in a little water or the juice from canned pineapples until you get the desired consistency.
Unlike other pickled jalapenos, these jalapenos are crunchy and fresh tasting, even after one month in the fridge. Like most Vietnamese pickling, this method doesn’t involve a hot water bath that cooks the vegetables. Therefore, it doesn’t last an eternity. However what lacks in perishability, makes up in the taste. These pickled jalapenos have the perfect balance between spicy, sweet and sour. Best of all, they have a crispy texture that you won’t find in any store-bought pickled jalapenos.
Vietnamese fish sauce dipping sauce, or Nuoc Mam Cham or Nuoc Mam Ot, is used in many Vietnamese dishes: cha gio (egg rolls), goi cuon (spring rolls), banh xeo (Vietnamese crepes), banh cuon (Vietnamese rice rolls), Vietnamese mini pancakes (banh khot), grilled meats, and many, many more. If these dishes do not come with Nuoc Mam Cham, there's no point in eating!
Annatto oil, also known as Achiote Oil and Atsuete Oil, is a natural orange-red food dye used in many Asian and Latin cuisines.
Like many elderly people (I’m on my way at age 36), I enjoy doing mundane, repetitive tasks every now and then. One of which is making my own fried shallots (hanh phi). Getting comfy and doing nothing but peeling shallots while listening to good music soothes my soul.
Mam Kho Quet is a sauce and vegetable dish derived from poverty when Vietnamese farmers had plentiful vegetables but very little protein. The dipping sauce is made by caramelizing fish sauce and sugar in a small clay pot with a small amount of pork, dried shrimp, dried fish, and/or pork fat. The sauce is then served in the clay pot alongside a platter of fresh and boiled vegetables.
Store-bought potsticker dipping sauce is the worst. I finally came up with a homemade version that I absolutely love! Not only is this soy dipping sauce great for pot stickers, it is also great for dipping vegetables.
Vietnamese Caramel Sauce (Nước Màu) is not a sauce you put on ice cream or an ingredient you use in baking. It's not even sweet. In fact, it's bitter. Vietnamese caramel sauce is used in many Vietnamese savory caramelized dishes (Món An Khô). Its purpose is to color meat to make it more appetizing.
If you are lucky enough to have an Asian supermarket around you, you may be able to get free pork fat from the butcher in the back. If not, you can use fat from a big slab of pork belly or gather up pork fat from pork trimmings and make your own. It’s a delicious topping in noodle soups!
Mắm Nêm is a very pungent Vietnamese sauce made with fermented anchovy, crushed pineapples, sugar, lemon juice, Thai chili pepper, lemongrass and garlic. It is a hard-core alternative to wherever the more widely known Vietnamese Fish Sauce Dipping Sauce (Nuoc Mam Cham) is used, and best alongside beef dishes as in Vietnamese Lemongrass Grilled Beef (Bo Nuong Vi).
A mignonette sauce is a condiment for raw oysters on the half shell. There are many wonderful variations but the basic ingredients in a mignonette sauce are vinegar, shallots and pepper. Here is an Asian take on the classic mignonette sauce.
Vietnamese ginger fish sauce (Nuoc Mam Gung) is made from mixing together fish sauce, sugar, lemon/lime juice, garlic and ginger. It’s sweet, sour and spicy with a nice zing from freshly grated ginger, making it the perfect dipping sauce for poached chicken, duck and grilled seafood.