The goi cuon (flexible rice paper rolls) are often served with a peanut sauce in restaurants, but many local Vietnamese enjoy esting it with fish sauce (nuoc mem).

1 empty glass jar

Sugar

1 Lemon

4-5 pieces of garlic

Chili garlic sauce (plastic jar with a green top, with a rooster / chicken on it)

Concentrated fish sauce (Tiparos brand)

Water

In an empty jar, measure in relation to the size of the jar:

• Pour in 1/8 of sugar into the jar.
• Boil some hot water and pour into the jar – just slightly above the sugar content.
• Dilute the sugar completely with a stirring stick.
• Add cold water to about a little over half of the jar.
• Take one lemon and roll it around on the counter, pushing down to make it nice and squishy.
• Cut open the lemon in half over the jar and squeeze.
• Crush the garlic into the jar.
• Add 2 tsp or more of the chili garlic sauce, depending on how spicy you like it.
• Add the concentrated fish sauce – a third of less to the amount of water content already in the jar … or until the color is golden brown with a tinge of red from the chili garlic sauce.

Add more water or concentrated fish sauce, according to how strong or light you prefer the taste. Stir all contents adn chill in fridge before use.

2 Tbsp peanut btter

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup lime juice

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp curry powder

1 gloves of chopped garlic

1 tsp hot pepper sauce

The béarnaise sauce is similar to the hollandaise sauce but is enhanced with shallots, tarragon, and vinegar. These two are the most celebrated of emulsified sauces and consist of a stable mixture of two liquids – vinegar or lemon and butter – that normally separate from each other. To keep them together they need an emulsifying agent that occurs naturally in many animal substances such as egg yolks (lecithin), milk (casein) and blood. In fact, a small quantity of casein in regular butter does, to a slight degree, help emulsify your hollandaise sauce. These agents work in three different ways: they coat the oil droplets, reduce water’s surface tension and give the oil droplets identical electrical charges.

So, the stability of an emulsion is threatened if:

• temperatures are too extreme (separates when frozen, curdles when heat reached 190°F)
• there is excess agitation – overbeating destabilizes the emulsion.
• a nasty thunderstorm strikes!

2 Tbsp of finely chopped shallots
1 Tbsp of red vinegar
1 Tbsp of water
1 Tbsp of fresh tarragon
3 large egg yolks at room temperature
1/4 tsp of salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper
1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter at room temperature and cut up in small pieces

• In a thick-bottomed saucepan mix the vinegar and the shallots.
• Cook on low heat until vinegar is evaporated.
• Add the water, the yolks, the tarragon, the salt and the cayenne.
• Beat with a whisk until just blended.
• Improvise a double boiler with 1/2 inch of water brought to a simmer in a large pan.
• Set the saucepan with the egg mixture in it.
• Cook for 1 or 2 minutes until yolks thicken.
• Beating constantly, gradually add increasing quantities of butter.