Thinly sliced garlic and bird’s eye chilies steeped in rice vinegar until mellow and tangy. A spoonful brightens a bowl of Phở Hà Nội or any of our Vietnamese noodle soups.
Makes
1 small jar
Prep
15 min
Cook
None
Total
15 min + 2 days to 1 week
Cuisine
Course
Ingredients
For the garlic vinegar
- 100 g garlic, well cured and dried (see Notes)
- Bird’s eye chilies, as many as you like
- 200 ml white rice vinegar, more or less depending on your jar
Instructions
- Pour boiling water into and over a jar to sanitize it, then let it cool and dry completely.
- Trim the root ends off the garlic cloves and peel them.
- Slice the garlic thinly, ideally lengthwise from root to tip.
- If using chilies, trim off the stems. Leave them whole, halve them or slice them, depending on how spicy you want it.
- Add the garlic and chilies to the clean, dry jar.
- Pour in enough rice vinegar to cover the garlic by at least 3 cm (about 1 inch).
- Close the lid and keep the jar in a cool, dark place like a cabinet for at least 2 days, ideally a week. After a week, you can move it to the fridge.
Notes & substitutions
Use fully cured garlic: the outer skins should be dry and papery, the roots dry, the center stem hard and the cloves should separate easily. If the skin sticks to the cloves when you peel them, the garlic isn’t cured enough and will likely turn blue in the vinegar. That’s harmless, just not what we’re after.
We use it in: Phở Hà Nội, Bún Dọc Mùng, Bún Cá and Mì Gà Tần.
Adapted from Tỏi ngâm giấm • Vietnamese vinegar garlic by Mai Ngo.
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