5 ingredients whisked in a bowl. No cooking, no blender, and about five minutes.

Nuoc tuong cham is a Vietnamese dipping sauce served with fresh spring rolls, grilled meats and rice paper wraps. This version leans on hoisin and coconut milk rather than the more common fish sauce base.

Whisk the liquids first, peanut butter last

Hoisin, sriracha, rice vinegar and coconut milk together, then the peanut butter added gradually.

The order is the only technique in the recipe and it matters. Peanut butter is thick and stiff, and dropped into a bowl of liquid it stays as a lump that resists whisking.

Adding it gradually into an already combined liquid base lets each addition disperse before the next arrives. The recipe says to do this to eliminate chunks, and that is exactly right.

If it still resists, warm the peanut butter for fifteen seconds in the microwave first. It loosens considerably.

Chunky peanut butter, deliberately

Two tablespoons, and the recipe specifies chunky rather than smooth.

The peanut pieces stay through the sauce and give texture, which matters in a dipping sauce that is otherwise entirely smooth. Combined with the toasted peanuts on top, you get crunch in two forms.

Smooth peanut butter works and gives a silkier sauce. That is a different thing rather than a worse one.

Coconut milk keeps it pourable

Half a cup, matching the half cup of hoisin.

Hoisin on its own is thick, dark and intensely sweet and salty. Undiluted it would be a paste rather than a dipping sauce, and far too strong.

Coconut milk thins it to a pourable consistency and adds richness and a mild sweetness that suits peanut. It also softens the saltiness of the hoisin considerably.

Full fat rather than light. Light coconut milk is mostly water and the sauce comes out thin.

Rice vinegar for balance

Two tablespoons, unseasoned.

Hoisin is sweet, peanut butter is rich, coconut milk is rich again. Without acid the sauce sits heavy on the tongue and tastes cloying after a few bites.

Unseasoned specifically. Seasoned rice vinegar has sugar and salt added, which this sauce does not need any more of.

Sriracha and how much heat

A tablespoon, which gives a mild background warmth rather than real heat once it is spread through a cup of liquid.

Increase it if you want more. The sweetness of the hoisin absorbs a surprising amount of chilli, so you can go to two tablespoons without it becoming aggressive.

A note on the source

The original carries a note about substituting rendered bacon fat with Chinese sausage, describing it as a family tradition.

Neither ingredient appears anywhere in the ingredient list or the method, so the note appears to belong to a different version of the recipe. What is written here is the five ingredient version as listed.

The source also gives no yield and no times. This makes roughly a cup and a quarter, which is enough for four to six people dipping, and it takes five minutes.

Garnish with the peanuts

A tablespoon of chopped toasted peanuts scattered over, plus a swirl of sriracha.

Toasting is worth doing if your peanuts are raw. Three minutes in a dry pan roughly doubles their flavour and makes them properly crisp.

Add them just before serving. Left sitting in the sauce they soften within an hour.

Serving and keeping

Fresh spring rolls are the classic partner, along with grilled pork, chicken satay, rice paper rolls or as a dressing for a noodle salad. <p>It keeps four or five days refrigerated in a sealed container. It thickens considerably as it chills, so let it come back toward room temperature or whisk in a spoonful of water before serving. ## Making it thinner or thicker Water or more coconut milk thins it. More peanut butter thickens it. For a dipping sauce you want it to coat the back of a spoon without running off; for a noodle dressing, considerably looser.

Hoisin, and what it is

A thick fermented soybean sauce with garlic, sugar and spices, dark and glossy and intensely savoury-sweet. It is the backbone of this sauce and there is no real substitute. Most supermarkets stock it alongside the soy sauce.