NUOC CHAM, FOOD’S EMERGENCY DEFIBRILLATOR.

This simple sauce gives everything an electric shock that’s hot, sweet, sour and salty.

Five days in Vietnam, and I have come home craving nuoc cham. It’s the simplest dipping sauce – just lime juice, fish sauce, vinegar, chilli and garlic – but acts as an instant defibrillator for whatever food you have on the table.

Grilled chicken, spring rolls (especially spring rolls), bbq pork, banh mi rolls, banh xeo pancakes, rice dishes - you name it, they need the electric shock of nuoc cham to burst into life.

By the time I got back, I was looking forward to using nuoc cham with everything from a breakfast fried egg to a simple rice noodle salad – but particularly, with chicken liver pate, spread on a baguette. Oh man, that is good.

Nuoc cham (pronounced nook chum, which means I have been saying it wrong all my life) literally means ‘dipping sauce’, but it’s brilliant used as a dressing as well.

My recipe below is punchy, sharp, sweet and hot. You can tone it down with a couple of tablespoons of water (or coconut water) if it’s too intense, but remember it’s often the main seasoning to something quite simple and bland, like vermicelli rice noodles, or grilled chicken.

NUOC CHAM SAUCE

• 1 tbsp palm sugar (liquid, in a jar)

• 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice

• 2 tbsp rice vinegar

• 1 to 2 long red chillies (depending on your tolerance)

• 1 garlic clove

• 3 tbsp fish sauce

Mix the palm sugar, lime juice and rice vinegar.

Finely mince the red chillies and garlic, and add to the sauce, stirring.

Add 2 tbsp of the fish sauce, stir well and taste, then consider adding another.

Keep tasting and adjusting for sweetness and tang, until you freaking love it.

Makes 150 ml.

# I find the best way to mince chilli and garlic is with one of those very handy small Victorinox serrated knives rather than a big chef’s knife, but you do you.

# If you don’t have liquid palm sugar, use caster sugar - just be sure to dissolve it in the lime juice and rice vinegar as the first step.

# Vinegar can be white vinegar, coconut vinegar (amazing stuff), or my favourite, rice vinegar.

# Some cooks pound the garlic and chilli, others finely chop, and some chuck them into the mini food processor (if you do that, just pulse once or twice or you will have a puree).

# Use finely minced red-skinned shallots if you don’t feel like garlic. Add a tablespoon of carrot and/or daikon, cut into matchsticks.

# Fish sauce varies in intensity, so taste as you go.

SPOON IT OVER CHILLED OYSTERS!

Oh, my dear lawd, this is good. Proof that nuoc cham doesn’t drown, it lifts.

MAKE IT GREEN!

Use green chillies instead of red, and add a tablespoon of finely chopped coriander and another of chopped basil, holy basil or mint. This is especially beautiful with chicken, and salads. Add some finely chopped dill if serving with grilled fish or salmon (and why wouldn’t you).

SERVE IT WITH BURRATA!

At the tiny Pot Au Pho in Saigon, Peter Cuong Franklin serves an amazing salad of fresh burrata from Dalat, with watercress, cucumber, onion, house-made nuoc cham and a pesto made from pho herbs. (Pic lifted from their Facebook page). Could somebody please open a beautiful, contemporary pho fine diner here please? Peter?

SERVE IT WITH CHICKEN LIVER PATE!

Make a simple chicken liver pate to spread on fresh baguette, with a spoonful of nuoc cham. Cleverly triggers everything you love about Vietnamese banh mi rolls, without all the hard work (and the banh mi). Recipe next week!

Thanks for dropping by! And as always, thanks for your comments and suggestions. Special thanks to Terry for ordering everything that came with nuoc cham throughout Saigon – especially tiny fried cha gio spring rolls - thereby causing this week’s obsession.

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I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and pay my respects to Elders past and present, and to the continuing strength and resilience of First Nations people, communities and cultures.