Author Archives: Chef Tummy

About Chef Tummy

Chef Tummy lives in Thailand where he teaches traditional Thai cooking. He travelled 6,002 miles / 9,680 kilometers around Thailand by motorcycle to taste and learn to cook Thai food from the real experts - the senior chefs who shared their family recipes with him.

Thai Recipe: Som Tam salad with Cabbage and Carrot

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CABBAGE AND CARROT SALAD

 

This recipe substitutes cabbage for the papaya as cabbage is more common in Western markets.  Papaya available in Western markets has sometimes ripened from the tangy unripe and green skinned version into a sweet, orange flavored fruit, so cabbage can be a ready substitute and it will give a crunchy and slightly sour taste as does the papaya in the original recipe.

  • Carrot, 1 cup / enough to fill 750 ml measuring cup, skin peeled off and the carrot grated
  • Cabbage, 2 cups / enough to fill a XXXXXX  ml measuring cup, with the cabbage cut into shreds the size of crayons
  • Chillie – try one Thai “birds eye chillie” – you can add more if it is not spicy enough for your liking.  Remove the stem from the chillie and discard.
  • Tomato, 1 medium, cut into 8 slices
  • Garlic, 1 clove /1 teaspoon /5 ml, minced.  Remove the outer skin and discard.
  • Sugar, 1 teaspoon / enough to fill a 5 ml measuring spoon
  • Lime juice, 1 tablespoon / 15 ml
  • Fish sauce, 1 tablespoon / 15 ml
  • Peanuts, 2 tablespoons / enough to fill a 30 ml measuring spoon, hard outer shell removed, peanuts divided into two halves and toasted in a dry pan for about 2 minutes over low heat until lightly toasted but not burned.

STEP 2:  Combine the ingredients

  • This salad gets it flavor by the bruising action of mashing the cabbage, carrot, tomato, peanuts, garlic, and chillie into a rough crushed mix with the lime juice, sugar and fish sauce.  This a different method of making Western salads, where the ingredients are chopped or torn and then combined and a sauce or dressing is added.
  • Add the garlic and chillie to your mortar or mixing bowl.  Pound with vigor for about 20 seconds to break up the garlic and chillie.   We want the chillie and garlic to be a smooth paste so their spice is distributed evenly through the salad.  If you do not have a mortar, mince the garlic and chillie finely so they will be easily incorporated into the salad.
  • Add the lime juice, fish sauce, sugar and peanuts to the mixture.  Pound gently for 20 seconds.
  • Add the tomato.  For about 10 seconds alternate between pounding and using the long handled spoon to scoop and mix the ingredients.
  • Add the carrot.  For about 10 seconds alternate between pounding and using the long handled spoon to scoop and mix the ingredients.
  • Add the sliced cabbage.  For about 20 seconds alternate between pounding the ingredients and using the long handled spoon to scoop and mix the ingredients.
  • Taste to see if you have achieved a balance between salty, sweet, tangy/sour and spicy.  You can add more of the flavorings to get the balance that suits your taste.

Pour the contents of your mortar or mixing bowl on to a plate and serve.

 

Thai Recipe: Why Rice is Nice in Thailand and How To Cook Thai Jasmine Rice

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Rice, especially the fragrant Thai jasmine rice, is the essential staple of the Thai diet.  Unlike other countries, Thailand is not a large producer of wheat or potatoes.

Rice is the center point of the meal and Thai food is especially designed to be eaten with rice – the neutral taste of rice serves as a counterpoint to the often piquant Thai dishes.  To eat Thai food is to eat rice with other food.

Language lovers note that the Thai word for rice is a synonym for food.  A common greeting among friends in Thai is “have you eaten rice/food yet?”  I often answer in the negative in case the person greeting me has something delicious they want to share!

A row of different brands and quality levels of rice at a Thai supermarket

Rice is eaten with every meal, whether it be steamed jasmine rice (or sticky/glutinous rice in some parts of Thailand) or rice noodles or rice incorporated into desserts. Rice can be made into a homemade wine or a type of whiskey.  Many folk sayings incorporate the word for rice (the expression “rice waiting for rain” means the speaker has waited a long time for something to happen).  Rice is also used in religious ceremonies, whether as an offering to Buddhist monks on their daily alms rounds where they are offered rice and other foods by faithful followers, or rice is placed as an offering for animist spirit shrines to ask the spirits that protect the land to watch over the inhabitants.

Since rice is the foundation of Thai cooking, here is an outline on how to best prepare Thai jasmine rice.  I most often use an electronic rice cooker.  If you do not have such a machine, you can easily make Thai rice on top of the stove.

Different grades of rice available at an open air market in Chiang Mai Thailand

PREPARING THE JASMINE RICE FOR COOKING – THE HARDWARE YOU NEED

  • measuring cup for the jasmine rice
  • electric rice cooker or pot with a lid for cooking the rice
  • colander or strainer for helping rinse the starch off the rice

MAKING RICE – INGREDIENTS

  • 1.5 cups of raw dry jasmine rice (about 200 grams dry weight or enough to fill a metric measuring cup to 350 ml)
  • 2 cups / 450 ml of water for cooking the rice
  • more water for rinsing the starch off the rice

METHOD

Step 1: Prepare the rice

Thai jasmine rice must be rinsed before cooking to get ride of any excess starch on the rice – failing to rinse the rice will result in the rice being too sticky.  The cooked jasmine rice grains should be fully cooked with each rice grain separate but not sticking together.

For this recipe, the 1.5 cups of raw jasmine rice made almost four cups of cooked rice – it expands considerably when cooked.

Step 1:  Rinsing the raw rice grains:

Wash jasmine rice thoroughly to get most of the rice starch off each rice grain.  Place the amount of rice you wish to cook in the cooking pot and fill the cooking pot with water to a couple of inches (5 cm) above the water. Massage the rice grains in the water with your hand to loosen the starch and drain off the water in a colander or strainer.  Repeat this between three and five times until the water being poured out of the bowl runs clear.  The amount of starch on the rice can vary according to the brand, so use your own judgement on how many times you must rinse the rice.  Strain the rinsed rice to get rid of the water and return the rinsed rice to the cooking pot.

Cooking the rinsed rice using an electronic rice cooker:

Place the 1.5 cups of rinsed rice in your cooking pot and add the two cups of water.  Plug in the rice cooker and flip the switch to the “On” or “Cook” position – the machine does the rest.  The rice cooker will keep the rice warm and ready for eating.

Cooking the rinsed rice in a pot on the stove:

The cooking pan you use to make rice on top of the stove will influence how long the rice must cook.  I used a thin pan and the rice came to a boil rapidly. A thicker pan may absorb more of the heat and your cooking time may be longer.  As always, experiment with the equipment you have at home so you can control the outcome.

If you are preparing the rice in a cooking pot on top of the stove, bring the rice and water to a soft boil over medium heat with the cover off.  Cook for eight minutes or until the water has evaporated and the rice looks dry on top.  Again, this time will vary according to how much heat your stove produces and the thickness of the cooking pit you are using.

Reduce the heat to low, cover the cooking pot and cook for fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes, lift off the cover of the cooking pot.  If the rice looks like it has absorbed all the water, turn off the heat under the cooking pot, remove the cooking pot from the stove with the cover on so the cooked rice starts to cool.  If the rice is still moist, cook for an additional couple of minutes, then remove from the stove to cool.

If you have excess rice after your meal, you can store the rice in the refrigerator and use it to make stirfried rice dishes or rice soup.

Julia Child Still Inspires Me

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A used book store can be a portal to another world and a treasure trove.  Amidst the thrillers and chillers and books about vampires who shop too much or the like, I was so pleased to recently find the book My Life in France by Julia Child and devoured it one sitting.  Julia Child was an American who lived in France from 1948 to 1954 and immersed herself in traditional French cooking and later popularized French cooking in America starting in the 1960′s with many cookbooks and a television show.

She admits she had a healthy appetite but had not been encouraged to cook when growing up in California.  She did some cooking at home after marrying Paul Child, a diplomat employed by the United States Information Service, but her husband noted “her first attempts were not altogether successful” with brains simmered in wine a notable failed experiment.

Once she and her husband moved to France, she became enraptured and engrossed with French food, the vibrancy of the markets and the expertise of seemingly everyone she met.  The food mattered to the French people.   Her food epiphany occurred at her first meal in France.  She tasted sole meuniere – “a morsel of perfection” she wrote.

She loved French food so much she attended the famous Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris and set up her own French cooking school.

This experience in part lead to this American embracing, comprehending and communicating the glory of French food for millions of people.  She and two French colleagues wrote a best selling classic French cookbook in English titled Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

This led to her having a hugely popular cooking television show on public TV in America and writing ten other cookbooks.  Her enthusiasm and common sense cooking were appealing and highly influential to several generations of American home cooks and professional chefs.  I used to watch the cooking show when I lived in America and owned most of her cookbooks and tried to learn the French classics from her well trusted recipes.

Julia Child in her kitchen

The intensity of interest, pride and debate about what constitutes good food and correct techniques for coaxing the best flavors from ingredients is the same in Thailand as in the France described by Julia Child.  Since my principal joy in Thailand is eating and making Thai food, I have been inspired by Julia Child to learn more and share what I learn.

As an aside, Thai culinary expert Sirichalerm Svasti or “Chef McDang” notes in his own cookbook that he was influenced to abandon a career as a diplomat in training at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and become a chef when he saw Julia Child on television.  “Then Julia Child came along.  Let me tell you, she was a hoot.  Funny, totally natural, completely unafraid of making mistakes on television.  The way she came across was very inspiring,” he wrote in the introduction to his popular cookbook The Principles of Thai Cookery.

Julia Child on television - entertaining, informed and unafraid

WHAT I LEARNED FROM JULIA CHILD

1.  Read every recipe twice before you make it to ensure you have the tools, ingredients and understand the techniques so the food is as good as it can be.

2.)  Make each dish several times before serving it to guests so you understand how to replicate the recipe in your own kitchen with your own equipment.  At the first real dinner party I ever hosted, I tried to make the fabled French dish coq au vin (chicken stewed in red wine) for some friends.  Success was achieved eventually, but I had not really understood the recipe nor made it before so dinner was an hour late arriving to the table.  Careful reading and practice would have made me realize I should have cut the chicken into smaller pieces, had more wine for the stew and should have made it ahead of time, thus avoiding the embarrassing and agonizing wait (Susan, Jim and Mary – thank you for your patience back in 1987)!

3.  If writing a recipe for someone else to prepare, test the recipe many times with a view that the recipe reader might not have the same equipment, that the heat from a stove can vary, ingredients common in one area may be scarce in another and you cannot assume that the reader knows that one ingredient could be substituted for another.  Research the traditional recipes and test, test, test while keeping the recipe simple but authentic.

So today I will test and retest some recipes, just as Julia Child did.  As she wrote, “I learned why good French food is an art, and why it makes such sublime eating: nothing is too much trouble if it turns out the way it should.”

Thai Food – For When You Are Ready For Full Flavors, the Rock and Roll of Thai food awaits

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When you are ready, the rock and roll of Thai food awaits you

Raw Beef Salad in Chiang Mai - No Stranger than Eating Beef Tartare in France is it?

I often teach group Thai cooking classes to students who might be from six different countries.  The goal of the class is for each student to be able to return home, buy the  Thai ingredients they need and make a meal for their friends and families.  Some ingredients used in Thai cooking might not be easily purchased outside of Thailand and the breadth of Thai cooking could include variations on many hundreds of different dishes.  I necessarily have had to narrow down the menu to those dishes that a chef making food abroad could reasonably recreate at home, sort of the greatest hits of Thai cooking.  These delicious dishes might include Massaman Chicken Curry, Bananas in Coconut Milk dessert, Hot & Sour Shrimp Soup, Chicken with Cashew Nuts or Stirfried Vegetables with Oyster Sauce - all classics.

As a contrast to the greatest hits of Thai food, here are some photos and descriptions of wonderful but less commonly seen Thai dishes.

Although somewhat unorthodox and even dangerous sounding to a Western palate used to cheese and bread, these sometimes uncommon ingredients make traditional Thai food like rock and roll versus the elevator music of beans on toast - surrender yourself to the beat and feeling and dance with the flavors.

I invite all readers to travel with me – the adventure into the unfamiliar is worth it.

Roasted Red Ant Eggs for breakfast in Northeastern Thailand - jungle caviar, right? No stranger than eating fish eggs as caviar, right?

Salted Duck Eggs from Suratthani - preserved by brining in salt and then entombed with mud and ash (only the salted egg inside is eaten) but these look like dinosaur eggs,don't they?

Bugs in Chiang Mai

Below is a typical open air Thai restaurant in Phang-Nga in Southwestern Thailand that shows a cross section of truly Thai food with enormous variety, freshness, and tantalizing flavors – some of the food was spicy enough to strip paint off an old building, while other dishes were sweetened with coconut cream and palm sugar –  and all were delicious.

A typical streetside Thai restaurant with something for everyone

Thai cooking class where I was told I’m “hilarious”

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A recent visitor to the Thai cooking classes described me as “hilarious” in her travel blog (and she wasn’t even referring to my chubby face or the fact that my shirttail always seems to come untucked out of my pants).  I appreciated the compliment as I try hard to make the Thai cooking classes both informative and fun.

 

I had a visitor to the Thai cooking class named Nadine Sykora, a twenty-something Canadian who has created her own niche as a video blogger / world traveler / Internet personality.  Nadine has made hundreds of videos and has a huge number of subscribers on YouTube and Facebook.  I was so impressed she had the self- confidence and creativity to make informative and often very funny videos and blog posts.

 

Nadine was invited by the Contiki travel tour company to enjoy and document many trips, including a visit to Thailand.  Contiki offers travel adventure trips in over 40 countries for travellers ages 18 to 35.  Nadine and a group of jolly and inquisitive Contiki visitors joined in on a Thai cooking class.  We made Southern Thai Massaman curry (the recipe for this dish is included in this blog) as well as some other dishes.

Chef Nadine

Make it Simple, Make it Informative and Make it Funny
I try to make the class informative and entertaining by stressing the basic techniques of Thai cooking with some jokes thrown in to keep the attention of the students.One thing I emphasize is “it is easier to add heat to your cooking pan than subtract – keep the heat under the pan on low to medium so the ingredients don’t burn – burned curry paste will make the whole dish taste bitter” when making a dish such as Massaman curry.  I tell the students “If you have your heat too high, then the ingredients will burn and then tears will fall down like rain” as I gesture to my eyes.  After the third repetition of this crying act the students usually chuckle.  We take our laughs where we can get them and I get the point across that not all Asian cooking has to be done on the highest heat – sometime achieving the most flavor in a Thai dish is a marathon and not a sprint.

Nadine artfully decorated her Massaman with toasted peanuts and coriander leaf

Nadine has inspired me to make more videos and more blog entries – thanks Nadine and best of luck in your travels!
You can learned more about Nadine at her website:  www.nadinesykora.com
You can learn more about Contiki tours at their website: www.contiki.com

Thai Recipe: Stirfried Pork with Basil Leaf and Garlic

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STIRFRIED PORK WITH SPICY HOLY BASIL, CHILLIE AND GARLIC

Thai Name:  Phad Bai Grapow Muu Sap (literally: Stirfried Spicy Holy Basil with Minced Pork)

Minced Pork with Holy Basil & Chillie and Cucumber Garnish

You can see a video on how to make this dish on www.YouTube.com under the cheftummycooks page.  It features a discussion of the cooking technique and the unique Thai ingredients that give this dish its flavor and aroma.

INTRODUCTION

This is a favorite “anytime of the day” dish that gives a spicy punch. The original recipe calls for a paste made from spicy Thai bird’s eye chillies and tiny Thai garlic.  A unique type of basil known as”holy basil” or bai grapow is added at the end of the cooking process to give flavor, aroma and color. 

The key technique is to add the spicy basil at the end of the cooking process to retain its flavor, aroma and color. I learned the recipe from Mister Diim at the Sailomjoy Restaurant in Chiang Mai.  I ate it over 45 times ( I was attending Thai language school near the restaurant and this dish helped fortify me for my daily inquisition by the stern Professor Malee at the language )!

A NOTE ABOUT INGREDIENTS

Thai food depends unique ingredients used to give this type of traditional dish a spicy and aromatic note – in this case it is the Thai bird’s eye chillies, the tiny Thai garlic and the holy basil.  If these are not available in your area, you can use other types of spicy chillies, the larger Western garlic and sweet basil – the dish still tastes great.

Holy Basil has great flavor and aroma - notice the serrated edges & matte / dull color

Metric System Users:  Some Thai recipes use small quantities of ingredients that are difficult to measure if the cook doesn’t have an accurate measuring scale in the kitchen. So, we use measuring spoons to approximate the quantity of ingredients in the recipe.  Remember that 1 Imperial teaspoon is the same as the amount in a 5 ml measuring spoon and 1 Imperial tablespoon is the same amount in a 15 ml measuring spoon.  Thai cooking should be a balance between the spicy, salty, sweet and sour flavors in the ingredients.  This type of volume (versus weight in grams or ounces) measuring gives the cook in a home kitchen enough accuracy in measuring the ingredients (especially since most home cooks do not own a digital scale with the precision to measure small gram units).  Most cooks will change these traditional recipes to suit their own taste as they experiment and create Thai food at home.

 INGREDIENTS

Ingredients Setup for the dish using the Holy Basil
  • 1.5 cups / 400 grams minced pork.  I recommend a mixture of 20% fat with 80% meat – the fat helps convey the flavor of the pork.  Some butchers or stores call this ratio for fat to meat “20% lean”. 
  • 2 tablespoons / 30 ml garlic, roughly chopped or pounded in a mortar
  • 1 tablespoon chillie / 15 ml (preferably the small but potent bird’s eye chillie), stem removed and pounded in a mortar - I used three medium bird’s eye chillies
  • 1 cup holy basil leaves (these have a serrated edge and a matte finish so look different than the sweet basil used in Western cooking that has a smooth leaf edge and shiny leaf)  
  • 2 tablespoons  / 30 ml water or chicken stock
  • 1 tablespoon / 15 ml fish sauce
  • 2 tablespoon / 30 ml oyster sauce
  • 2 tablespoons / 30 ml cooking oil
  • 1 teaspoon / 5 ml of white cane sugar (optional if the chillie heat is excessive to your taste, the addition of sugar will lessen the spice)

A Note to the Chef About Garlic

Most Thai chefs prefer to use the small garlic cloves called “Thai garlic” since the tiny, gossamer peel imparts a lovely aroma to the dish. If you do not have access to these small garlic cloves, the larger “Chinese” or “European” garlic can be used.  Either way, addition of some of the peel from the garlic is preferred to impart aroma.  You can alert your guests that the inclusion of the peel in the cooked dish is traditional; your guests can pick out the peel or deftly move the peel to the side of their plate if they don’t want to chomp on it.

Tiny Thai garlic on the left and larger Western garlic on the right

Thai chefs will pound the small “Thai” garlic and chillies in a mortar until they are roughly ground together, then scrape out the mixture and add it to the hot oil in the wok. 

EQUIPMENT

  • measuring cup for the pork and basil leaves
  • measuring spoons for the oyster sauce, water / chicken stock and fish sauce
  • mortar & pestle for pounding the chillies and garlic
  • spoon for scaping the inside of the mortar
  • wok
  • ladle for stirfrying
  • serving bowl
  • spoon and fork for eating

COOKING METHOD: STEP BY STEP

  • Smash the chillies and the garlic in a mortar to make a rough paste.  The goal is to have the spice in the seeds of the chillie evenly dispersed in the final dish.  As you pound, you can use a spoon to scrape the bits of chillie and garlic into the center and continue to pound until you get a rough paste.
  • If you do not have a mortar, you could chop the chillies and garlic and mix together before cooking.  In the video I made posted on www.Youtube.com, I did not have a mortar in the kitchen where I was filming.  So, I put the chillies and garlic in a bag and whacked them with a hammer.  The result is the same – when we face obstacles in the kitchen we must adapt and overcome. 
  • Turn on the heat under a wok to medium high and let the pan heat for about 30 seconds.
  • Add the vegetable oil and swirl in the wok to coat the inside.  Let the oil warm up about 30 seconds.
  • Add the smashed garlic and chillie to the hot wok and stirfry for 30 seconds until the garlic starts to brown slightly.
  • Add the pork and mix the pork and garlic & chillie in the pan to evenly distribute the garlic and chillie through the pork.  Continue stirfrying, making sure to frequently flip the pork so it all comes in contact with the hot wok surface. Cook the pork until it turns from pink to a uniform white color.  Depending on your stove and the thickness of your wok, this may take 3 to 5 minutes. 
  • When the pork is nearly cooked, add the oyster sauce, fish sauce and water/chicken stock and stirfry until well mixed and the pork is cooked all the way through. 
  • Turn off the heat under the pan, dump in the holy basil leaves and stir well to combine. Adding the basil leaf at the end will wilt the leaves and help them retain their color, flavor and aroma.
  • Once you are satisfied that the pork is cooked, taste to determine if the mixture is a balance of spicy from the chillies and holy basil, sweet from the oyster sauce and salty from the fish sauce and oyster sauce. You can add a little sugar to temper the chillie heat, to your taste.

Variation:  One traditional presentation is to add a fried egg on the side. 

Variation:  Some chefs use a prepared, bottled Mushroom sauce instead oyster sauce to impart a savory flavor.

The dish is served with steamed jasmine rice. 

Serves two persons as part of a multi-dish Thai meal

Thai Recipe: Bananas Stewed in Coconut Milk Dessert or Bananas Ordained as Nuns

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Bananas in Coconut Milk with Mint Topping

 What Do Nuns and Bananas Have To Do With Each Other?

 Thai Name:  Bananas Ordained as Nuns or กล้วยบวชชี

Many Thai dishes have a straight forward name that tells the ingredients and how they are cooked.  This dessert has a unique name as it uses the word “nuns” and does not specify the cooking method. The ingredients and cooking method have nothing to do with nuns, but I have heard the story behind the name “Bananas Ordained as Nuns” or bananas cooked in coconut milk. 

The most common explanation is because Thai Buddhist female nuns wear white clothes while they are living at a temple (while the male monks wear a saffron colored robe). So this recipe resembles the white clothes worn by the nuns, or so I’ve heard.  Other than that, the name is a mystery to me.  Regardless, it is one of the easiest Thai dessert to make and helps clear and sweeten the palate after a spicy Thai meal.

For this recipe, I cooked the bananas in the coconut milk and then cooled the dessert in the refrigerator.  Then I added the mint and took the photo.  For me this is the most satisfying taste and presentation.

However, the dish can be eaten warm, at room temperature or after being cooled in the refrigerator.  The mint decoration is attractive but not necessary.

NOTE:  No One Size Fits All

The challenge of writing recipes is that ingredients can vary considerably.  This recipe requires coconut milk.  Since most cooks must use a commercially made product, the sweetness in the coconut milk can vary according to the manufacturer.  Also, there are many types of bananas, each with a different level of sweetness and density.  Thus, you can play with the recipe to get the level of sweetness you like.  No one size fits all, but cooks who like to experiment understand that once they understand the method, they can adapt the recipe to the ingredients they are able to find.   

INGREDIENTS

  • coconut milk, 1 1/4 cup or 250 ml.  I used the Thai CHAOKOH brand for this recipe.
  • bananas, one large, cut down the middle and then into 1 inch chunks / 3 cm pieces so the bananas can get submerged in the coconut milk for cooking
  • sugar, 1 tablespoon  / 15 ml measuring spoon 
  • salt, 1/4 teaspoon
  • mint for garnish (optional but tastes good and looks pretty)

EQUIPMENT

  • saucepan (for this dish a saucepan is preferred over a wok as it gives greater depth for cooking the bananas in the coconut milk)
  • cutting board
  • knife
  • measuring cup
  • measuring spoon
  • bowl for serving
  • spoon for tasting
  • spoon for eating

METHOD

  1. Measure the coconut milk into the saucepan.  Bring to a gentle boil over medium heat.
  2. Add the sugar and salt and stir and dissolve in the coconut milk.
  3. Once the sugar is dissolved, add the banana pieces.
  4. Cook at a gentle boil until the bananas are soft around the edges but still have a firm texture.  The bananas should have a little hardness but not be boiled so long they are mushy. Test a banana piece with a fork to see if it is tender.  Once tender, remove from the heat and place in a serving bowl.  Depending on the ripeness and density of the bananas you use, the cooking time can vary from one minute to five minutes.
  5. Let the dish cool in the refrigerator and then garnish with a mint leaf.

This dish can be served hot, warm, room temperature or chilled, according to your preference.

Thai Recipe: Northern Thai Pork & Tomato Dipping Sauce – Naam Prik Ong

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Northern Thai Pork & Tomato Dipping Sauce ready to eat

This Northern Thai style pork and tomato dipping sauce is a popular dish that is served with fresh sliced vegetables such as cucumbers, green beans and cabbage.  It is often served with steamed sticky rice but can also be served on a sliced baguette “bruschetta” style or even on pasta as a sort of distant Thai culinary cousin to Bolognese sauce - sort of “East Meets West” for dinner.  I learned this recipe in Chiang Mai from my buddy “Chef Jeep” when I should have been doing my Thai language school homework.

I recorded an instructional video on www.youtube.com under the cheftummycooks page for one version of this recipe – please take a look.

The Thai name is “Naam Phrik Ong” or น้ำพริกอ่อง

Ingredients for the dish including vegetables to help you eat it

INGREDIENTS FOR THE DIPPING SAUCE

  • Pork, minced, 14 ounces / 400 grams or about 2 cups
  • Tomato, 3 to 4 large, seeds removed and the tomato flesh chopped into small pieces, about 12 ounces / 350 grams or 2 packed cups
  • Garlic, minced, about 5 cloves, or about 2 tablespoons / enough to fill a 30 ml measuring spoon
  • Shallot or red onion, minced, about 2 tablespoons  / enough to fill a 30 ml measuring spoon
  • Vegetable oil, 3 tablespoons / 45 ml
  • Red chillie paste, 1 tablespoon or enough to fill a 15 ml measuring spoon
  • Water, 4 tablespoons / 60 ml
  • Fish sauce, 2 tablespoons / 30 ml
  • White cane sugar, 1 teaspoon / enough to fill a 5 ml measuring spoon
  • Coriander, one sprig to add as a garnish (optional but it adds a little color contrast to the red tomatoes)

INGREDIENTS FOR THE SIDE VEGETABLES

  • one large cucumber, skin removed and cut into diagonal slices (a diagonal slice helps give more surface area for scooping up the food).
  • green beans, broken into 3 inch / 8 cm pieces

You can slice cucumbers, green beans, cabbage or lettuce to scoop the dipping sauce into your mouth.  The vegetables help cool the spice from the red chillie paste, as does serving this dish with sticky rice.  This dish is also served with sticky rice and pork cracklings. 

As you can see from the final dish display photo in this recipe and the ingredients photo, I took the skin off a cucumber and used a fun Thai serrated cutter to make a cucumber slice for using as vessel for eating the finished dish.  I also used some fresh green beans – you could try lettuce leaves or cabbage as well.

METHOD

Step 1:  Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or saucepan over low to medium heat and swirl the oil in the pan to coat the inside of the pan.  Add the minced garlic and shallots and saute until the shallots and garlic are softened, about 1 minute.

Step 2:  Add the red chillie paste and saute it with the shallots and garlic until the aroma is released, about 15 seconds.  Don’t let the chillie paste or shallots and garlic burn – you can always turn down the heat or just remove the cooking pan from the heat if the pan gets too hot.  Since every stove and pan are different, be watchful to not let the ingredients get too hot.

Step 3:  Add the minced pork to the cooking pan and stir it well with the chillie paste, shallots and garlic.  Add the water and fish sauce to help disperse the other ingredients and keep pressing and flipping the ingredients in the pan so they cook evenly for about a minute. 

Step 4:  Add the tomatoes and sugar and continue stirring until the pork cooks through and the tomatoes become soft.  Depending on the thickness of your pan and the heat on your stove, this will take five to seven minutes. 

Step 5: Give the dish a taste;  if it is too spicy, you can add more sugar to reduce the spice in the dish.

Step 6:  Once you are satisfied that the pork is fully cooked, remove from the heat and place into a bowl for serving.  Add some coriander leaves as a garnish if you like.

You can also place on the table a bowl with the cucumber slices and other vegetables.  Thai cooks often add some ice to the bowl with the vegetables to keep them crisp and cool.

THAI COOKING TOOLS

Inexpensive Thai kitchen tools for slicing vegetables

These inexpensive kitchen tools can give your dishes a Thai touch.  Thai cooking supply stores offer a number of cooking tools for making decorative shapes and designs for Thai food.  The photo shows a blue peeler that makes cute serrated edges when peeling a cucumber and the red handled cutter makes ridged slices – a fun thing to bring home from a trip to Thailand.  These items are also available for home delivery from the various Thai food import firms.

EAST MEETS WEST FOR DINNER

East meets West for dinner - the Thai dipping sauce on pasta

This dish vaguely resembles Italian Bolognese sauce in that meat is cooked with tomatoes.  True Bolognese sauce uses veal or pork with tomatoes or tomato paste and is served on pasta.  So I decided to boil some pasta until it was al dente and it tasted pretty good, although much more spicy than the traditional Italian Bolognese!