Vietnamese Shrimp Paste Sauce Recipe (Mam Tom)

As I promised earlier this week, here's the recipe for the condiment that traditionally accompanies the Northern Vietnamese dill fish dish. The dipping sauce is called mắm tôm, which literally translates to "fermented shrimp sauce". It's made from fermented shrimp paste sauce (mắm ruốc, whose aroma smells very pungent), garlic, sambal oelek chile paste, sugar and freshly squeezed lime juice. The preparation is very similar to mắm nêm, the dipping sauce used for bỏ nhúng dấm (Vietnamese beef fondue), except it doesn't contain pineapple. Both spicy sauces are very strong in taste, so if fermented paste is too overwhelming for your palate, you could ultimately use nước mắm chấm (fish sauce) for a milder flavor.

Enjoy this authentic recipe!