Basic Dipping Sauce - lime juice

Method

• In a small bowl, combine the lime juice, vinegar, sugar, and water and stir to dissolve the sugar.
• Taste and adjust the flavors to balance the sweet and sour as needed.
• Add the fish sauce, starting out with 5 tablespoons and then adding more as your palate dictates, balancing the sour, sweet, and salty.
• How much fish sauce you use depends on the brand and your own taste.
• Aim for a light honey or amber color and a bold, forward finish.
• Keep in mind that this sauce is typically used to dress dishes that include unsalted ingredients like lettuce and herbsingredients that will need an extra flavor lift.
• When youre satisfied, add the chiles and garlic.
• (If diners are sensitive to chile heat, serve the chiles on the side.)
• Put the sauce on the table so that diners can serve themselves, or portion it out in advance for serving.
• It may be prepared early in the day and left at room temperature until serving.
• Small, cute dishes are good for plunging little morsels of food into sauce.
• But if you are dunking a bundle of food wrapped in lettuce or a hand roll, you need shallow bowls three to four inches in diameter.
• Look for limes with smooth skins.
• They are juicier and easier to work with than fruits with dimpled, tough skins.
• Before juicing, use your palm to roll the limes back and forth on a firm work surface.
• This breaks down the membranes, which allows you to extract the maximum amount of juice from the fruit.
• Because I like pulp in my sauces, I use an old-fashioned handheld reamer for juicing.
• If your juicer filters out the pulp, start with a scant measurement of what is called for in a recipe, as you wont be working with the extra bulk contributed by the pulp.
• You can always add more juice when making final adjustments.