Nam Prik Pao (Chile and Garlic Paste)

Recipe Ingredients

4 tablespoons	60ml	Oil
3 tablespoons	45ml	Chopped garlic
3 tablespoons	45ml	Chopped shallots
3 tablespoons	45ml	Coarsely chopped dried red chilies
1 tablespoon	15ml	Fermented shrimp paste
1 tablespoon	15ml	Fish sauce
2 teaspoons	10ml	Sugar

Recipe Instructions

Heat the oil: add the garlic and shallots and fry briefly, remove from the oil and set aside. Add the chilies and fry until they start to change color, then remove them and set them aside.

In a mortar and pestle pound the shrimp paste, add the chilies, garlic and shallots, blending each in before adding the next. Then over low heat return all the ingredients to the oil, and fold into a uniform.

Paste. The resulting thick, slightly oily red/black sauce will keep almost indefinitely. If you wish you can add more fish sauce and/or sugar to get the flavor you want.

The fresh chilies should be bruised in a mortar and pestle. The dried chilies should be heated first, then crumbled into the fresh chilies. Beat the lemon grass with the grinder of the mortar and pestle (it's called a 'sa' in Thai, I'm never sure whether it is the mortar or the pestle in English) or the back of a cleaver.

Heat about 3 cups of water to boiling point, add all the ingredients, and stir constantly until cooked (it doesn't take long for mushrooms, longer for chicken or shrimp, and longest for beef).

Variation : use three cups of thin coconut milk instead of water, the result is tom kha, rather than tom yum...

Recipe By: Muoi Khuntilanont

Source:
The Elegant Taste of Thailand, by Sisamon Kongpan and Pinyo

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