Simple Recipe for Savory Vietnamese Vegetable Dipping Sauce with Unique Flavors

Rinse the dried shrimps and soak in water in 45 minutes until softened. Then drain them with a colander. Slice the pork fatback into small pieces and fry them in a wok to render the fat. Put the liquid fat and pork rinds separately.

Use 2-3 tablespoons of rendered fat to sauté sliced scallions until fragrant. Add the pork cubes and shrimps and toss well in about 1 minute. Then add sugar, caramel sauce, fish sauce and stir evenly to absorb the spices. Add some water and chili and boil. You shouldn’t boil too long to avoid making the shrimps and pork hard. When the shrimps and pork are firm and evenly coated with spices, add scallions, fried pork fats, black pepper and toss thoroughly then turn off the heat.

Perfect when served with crispy rice crackers and steamed vegetables.

I will tell you how to prepare crispy rice crackers:

– One bowl of ordinary rice, cooked

– Mix the cooked rice with a little cooking oil and water

– Put a non-stick wok over medium heat. Put the rice into the wok, evenly spaced. Add water occasionally and use a spoon to press the rice hard to make the grains adhere to each other. Once one side turns crispy and yellow, flip and do the same with the other side.

Vegetable dipping sauce goes well with steamed vegetables. I’ll share a tip to make the steamed vegetables green and crunchy: always steam vegetables in a large saucepan of boiling water with some salt, always close to the maximum heat.

The water in the saucepan should be enough so as to store pretty much space after adding the vegetables. With green vegetables, after boiling you can let cold water run over them or soak them in ice to preserve their color.