The Hot Sauce Cookbook (13 page)

In the 1970s, changes in immigration quotas lead to the rapid growth of Asian, Southeast Asian, and African communities in the United States. And, in 1975, the fall of Saigon brought a large influx of Vietnamese immigrants to California and the Gulf Coast. Slowly, over several decades, beef noodle
pho
,
banh mi
sandwiches, and summer rolls with dipping sauces have made their way into the culinary mainstream in California and the Gulf states. Meanwhile, Vietnamese immigrants have embraced Louisiana crawfish, jalapeño chiles, and American beef.

When I asked
Thuy Tran, a second generation Vietnamese-American, to teach me to make nuoc mam cham, she gave me a tour of her restaurant, b-10 Vietnamese Café in Houston, Texas. Her mother’s restaurant in Houston’s Chinatown was named Givral, an homage to a famous café in Saigon. Tran named her restaurant after item number b-10, a barbecued pork
banh mi
, which was the most popular item on the menu at Givral.

Tran also introduced computerized cash registers, eye-catching graphics, and some innovative items like “The Sloppy”
banh mi
sandwich, a Vietnamese take on a sloppy joe made with curry instead of barbecue sauce. She also serves
bo luc lac
, the classic Vietnamese steak dish, on a Tex-Mex style sizzling
comal
. You can also get your lemongrass-marinated filet mignon with two fried eggs for breakfast, a dish she calls “Vietnamese Steak and Eggs.”

As our society becomes increasingly multicultural, we are being exposed to new and foreign foods at an unprecedented level. And we are adopting those new cuisines into our everyday life without even thinking much about it. If you have a bottle of Sriracha sauce, Indian curry paste, or sambal oelek on your refrigerator door shelf, you know exactly what I am talking about.

The scholarly study of food neophobia and food neophilia in North America and Western Europe has been going on for a long time and is far more complex than the broad strokes painted here. Sociologists are interested in the subject because food neophilia is a predictor for other cultural behaviors and attitudes that have consequences for our societies far beyond the sales of hot sauce and the success rate of Asian restaurants. But “world food” lovers have their own reasons to be interested in the subject.

I think it was around 2007 when a sambal won the special variety category of the Austin Hot Sauce Festival contest for the first time. Since then we have sampled curries, chutneys, and chile pastes of many ethnicities. There is a staggering array of hot pepper sauces made in Asia. The hot ketchup–like sauces of Sri Racha in Thailand are easy for Americans to love, while Malayasian sauces made with fermented shrimp paste induce a grimace among the hot sauce contest judges. Making Asian hot sauces that appeal to American tastes is now a major industry.

Here’s a collection of international hot sauce recipes adapted for American kitchens using easily available ingredients.

SPICY PEANUT SAUCE

———
Makes about 3 cups
———

The recipe for this sauce comes from b-10 Vietnamese Café in Houston where it is a favorite with summer rolls. It is very similar to the Indonesian and Thai peanut sauces that are famously served with street food dishes like beef and chicken satay.

1 cup water

1 cup hoisin sauce

½ cup smooth peanut butter

¼ cup sugar

Fermented Pepper Mash
or sambal oelek (
homemade
or store-bought)

Combine the water, hoisin sauce, peanut butter, sugar, and chile mash in a saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring to dissolve the sugar and combine the flavors, for about 5 minutes.

Allow to cool and store in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before serving. This will keep for up to a week in the refrigerator.

NUOC MAM CHAM

(Vietnamese Dipping Sauce)

———
Makes about 3 cups
———

At b-10 Vietnamese Café, this dipping sauce base is stored in the refrigerator. To make a bowl of dipping sauce, the chiles, herbs, and garnishes are added just before the sauce is served. Thuy Tran makes the sauce with vinegar at the restaurant, but at home she often uses lime juice instead. You can also use a blend of both.

Base

2 cups water

¼ cup sugar

⅓ cup freshly squeezed lime juice or rice wine vinegar

⅓cup fish sauce, such as Squid brand

Chiles

2 to 3 fresh Thai chiles, thinly sliced, or 1 tablespoon
Fermented Pepper Mash
or sambal oelek (
homemade
or store-bought), or to taste

Optional Additions

1 clove garlic, shaved into slivers

1 teaspoon chopped fresh cilantro

1 teaspoon chopped fresh mint

1 teaspoon chopped roasted peanuts

1 teaspoon julienned carrots

To make the base, heat the water and sugar together until the sugar dissolves. Take off the heat and allow to cool. Add the lime juice and fish sauce. Store this base in the refrigerator for up to a month.

To serve, pour ½ cup of the base into a bowl and mix in chiles, along with the garlic, cilantro, mint, peanuts, and carrots, if desired. Always discard the leftover sauce in the bowl.

Goi Cuon

GOI CUON

(Vietnamese Summer Rolls)

———
Makes 8 rolls
———

You can make these easy rice paper rolls with shrimp, chicken, pork, or just vegetables. In my favorite version, sizzling strips of pork right out of the pan are wrapped up with cold vegetables and shrimp for a stunning combination of hot and cold. Leftover pork chops are perfect for the “twice-cooked” pork. I like to serve these with both the
Spicy Peanut Sauce
and
Nuoc Mam Cham
.

8 ounces rice vermicelli noodles

16 pencil-thin strips cooked pork

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

½ teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon peanut oil

8 sheets rice paper, preferably 8 inches in diameter

16 medium to large shrimp, cooked, peeled, and halved lengthwise

¼ cup shredded carrot

4 romaine lettuce leaves, torn in half lengthwise, stem discarded

16 cucumber spears, seeds removed

2 scallions, trimmed and cut into lengthwise slivers

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves

32 basil leaves

2 tablespoons chopped salted peanuts

Spicy Peanut Sauce
, to serve

Nuoc Mam Cham
, to serve

Cook the noodles according to the directions on the package. Allow to cool.

When all the other ingredients are ready, arrange them on the counter or work area. Lay out a clean kitchen towel. Put hot water (120°F) in a bowl next to a towel.

Toss the pork with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Heat the oil in a skillet and cook the pork strips until sizzling, turning a few times, about 2 minutes.

Soften a sheet of rice paper in the water for 10 seconds and lay it on the towel while it is still rigid. It will continue to soften as you work with it. In the middle of the rice paper, lay 4 shrimp pieces and about an eighth of the carrot, lettuce, cucumber, scallions, mint, and cilantro leaves. Top with 4 basil leaves and 2 strips of hot pork; sprinkle with chopped peanuts and roll up the rice paper, keeping it fairly tight. You can roll in the ends burrito-style, if you have large sheets of rice paper, or just roll it up and allow the ingredients to protrude from the ends of the roll, if you are working with smaller sheets.

Repeat this process until all the ingredients are used up. Serve immediately while the pork is hot, with the
Spicy Peanut Sauce
and
Nuoc Mam Cham
as dipping sauces.

HOMEMADE SRIRACHA SAUCE

———
Makes about 1 cup
———

The famous Huy Fong Rooster Brand Sriracha Sauce is made in California from red jalapeños. It is named after the hot sauces of the Thai coastal town of Sri Racha. The Thai Sri Racha sauces are thinner and runnier than the American version, which is very close to the consistency of ketchup. You can make your own Sriracha sauce with fresh chiles, if you like, but it doesn’t last very long in the refrigerator. Most people agree the fermented version tastes much better; it also lasts a lot longer.   
+  
If you have some
fermented pepper mash
on hand, it’s easy to make your own homemade fermented Sriracha sauce. And since you don’t need as much vinegar, you will probably like the homemade version better than the stuff in the bottle.

2 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

4 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1 cup puréed fresh red chiles or
Fermented Pepper Mash

2 garlic cloves

Combine the sugars with the vinegar in a small saucepan and heat until the sugars dissolve. Allow the vinegar mixture to cool. Combine the vinegar mixture with the mash and garlic and purée in a blender until very smooth. Strain to remove any grit or large particles. Store the sauce in a squeeze bottle in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks if made with fresh chiles, or for up to 6 months if made with fermented chiles.

Sajoer Boontje

SAMBAL

———
Makes 3½ cups
———

Sambal
is the term used to describe a simple pepper paste that is used as a substitute for fresh chiles in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. It is also the name used to describe commercial pepper pastes, such as
sambal oelek
. These highly concentrated pastes are very hot. They are often used as table condiments, in cooking, and as a base for the more elaborate sauces of Indonesia and Malaysia that are also known as
sambals.
  
+  
There are some three hundred varieties of
sambal
in Indonesia alone.
Sambal kecap manis
is a sweet soy sauce with tomato, shallots, and lime that has become popular among American chefs.
Sambal dabu dabu
is a mild chile sauce that tastes like a Mexican salsa.
Sambal asam
is a tart tamarind-flavored sauce.
Sambal balado
is made with shallots, garlic, tomato, and lime juice.
Sambal terasi
is made with the highly aromatic fermented shrimp paste called
terais
in Indonesia and
belacan
in Mayalasia.   
+  
Since Indonesia was a Dutch colony,
sambals
are also found in the Dutch-Indonesian restaurants of Holland and throughout Dutch culinary culture. You’ll find recipes for the more complex Indonesian and Malaysian sambals in the excellent cookbook,
Cradle of Flavor
, by James Oseland. Here’s a sweet and spicy
sambal
that’s easy to make in an American home kitchen. Serve with
Telor Belado
,
Eggplant Sambal
, or
Sajoer Boontje
(pictured
here
).