A Thai seafood dipping sauce which is green in color thanks to the green chilies and sweet basil which counterbalances the chili heat and adds a little sweetness.The combination of ingredients makes for the perfect combination with seafood and also Thai fresh spring rolls.
Prepare all the ingredients, peeling as necessary and chopping into small sized pieces to help the pounding or chopping process.
Mortar & Pestle Method
Place the chopped coriander root in the mortar and grind with the pestle in a pounding and twisting action until it has broken down as fine as you want it. Next add in and pound the garlic until that is pounded well. Proceed by adding ingredients one by one in order of hardness, pounding each successively to create your sauce and finishing with the soft ingredients.
Finish off making the sauce by adding the liquid ingredients and palm sugar and mixing together well.
Mini Blender Method
Put all the ingredients, including the liquid ones, into the blender container and blitz for a few seconds until the desired consistency is reached.
Video
Thai Seafood Dipping Sauce (Herbal Chilli Green Sauce)
Notes
Jinda chilies are Thai chilies that are quite spicy - if not available in your area you will need to substitute for something similar such as Serrano, Anaheim, Jalapeno or Fresno chili. In any case you will need to adjust quantity to the spice level you are comfortable with.Pickled garlic comes in many different sizes - the ones we use are about the size of a large marble. In this recipe we use about half a pickled garlic. The pickling liquid is usually a form of vinegar - we use this to add a sour note to the sauce.The consistency of the sauce is an important part of the overall mouth feel. You will need to pound or process the ingredients as finely as you decide you want the final sauce to be. In Thailand the sauces are typically not finely processed as people prefer to see some texture.The blender methd is quickest but releases less aroma and it is difficult to control the texture of the sauce because there is a rendency for the blender to chop unevenly. So you usually end up with some finely chopped bits and other bits hardly chopped at all. As a result most sauces processed using this method will be quite smooth.