Vietnamese chili sauce (dip)

2    Dried red chilies
      2    Cloves garlic
    1/2 ts Sugar
      2 tb Fish sauce
      1 tb Vinegar
      1 tb Lemon juice
 
  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.