Nam Prik Thai Relish

Nam Prik is a very important side-dish in Thailand but there are almost as many different nam prik as there are cooks preparing it. In Phana it is very important, too. In Phana it is known as JAEOW and I love it because of all the chillies and vowels it contains. The Thai version has too many consonants for my taste. Pensri learned to prepare a jaeow when we lived in Vientiane, though the friend who taught her came originally from Xiang Khuang, so the recipe probably came from there as well. The main difference between this jaeow and others I have had is that it uses tomatoes. So the finished dish is reddish in colour whereas most of the Phana ones are greenish. Luckily for me, we are able to get all the ingredients for jaeow in the UK. 

Here is how Pensri made some recently.

The ingredients are few and very simple: lots of chillies, plenty of garlic, an onion, a tomato, half a lemon, some thin soy sauce, salt and sugar.

Roast the chillies and garlic in a pan:

 

At the same time, grill the onion and the tomato:

 

Grind the roasted chillies, garlic and the chopped onion:
 

 

Add the tomatoes and the juice of half a lemon. Then add a pinch of salt, a smidgeon of sugar and about 4 dessert spoons of the soy sauce, all to taste.
  Grind all these ingredients together.

 

Garnish with a sprig of mint:

Eat with steamed and fresh vegetables and white fish (steamed, grilled or fried) and serve with sticky rice (in Phana) or your choice of sticky rice or steamed jasmine rice in UK:

 

While eating, you should murmur, or, better still, exclaim "Aroi Mahk" (in Thailand) or "Saeb saeb" or "Saeb lai" (in Phana or UK).

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Mike]

Lawrence one might also murmur "wow this is good but its bl**dy hot!"

Unless of course your mouth is like the inside of a furnace :-)

Nice photographs and an easy to follow recipe. I can see you are missing LOS.

BTW check out the latest Temple on TOT its up your way(sort of).

[malcolm]

Lawrence , hurry home , you're missing a lot of good times and food,Ciejays daughter (Thai) sent her some of the Nam Prik from Nakson Sawon and you would have thought she had won the loto ha ha . great pictures and easy recipe , Ciejay says it's always best when someone else makes it and gives it as a gift for you , and she ran up and down the soi sharing a little with all the neighbors they loved it . Give Pensri a big hell for us . Malcolm and Ciejay

[malcolm]

A BIG HELLO sorry

[Catherine Wentworth]

Ok, I've just finished my dinner but now I'm hungry again :-)

[Lawrence]

Sorry, Malcolm, your second comment came too late! You and I are both in trouble now!

Lots of food sharing goes on in Phana, too. It does seem good to be eating someone else's food and it's a nice way to keep in touch with people in a low-key sort of way.

[Lawrence]

Cat, I'm not sure this would fill you up but it would probably destroy a good many taste buds. Or is that just a myth?