Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Thai Chili Paste (Nam Prik Pao)


Nam Prik Pao is a favourite sauce in Thailand, you can add it to soups such as Tom Yum, as a spicy vegetable dip, as a sauce for cooked jasmine rice and even spread on bread for a spicy treat. This prepared sauce, a favourite of my beautiful Bride and brought all the way from Thailand (if anyone knows where to get this in the Toronto area, greatly appreciated), is different than the one you can make on your own Nam Prik Pao, the chilies used are the longer variety, and thus less spicy. The consistency of the sauce is almost like a jam, with oil. I don't know yet whether I'll try it on bread, but I have added it to various dishes for a little spicy kick.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey, Mike. I will personally keep an eye out for the Nam Prik Pao, I know a few asian stores in N.Toronto/Markham area. The Thai ingredient I am searching for is fresh green peppercorns, e-mail me please if you know a source. Have you ever been to Spoon and Fork, don't if you haven't,it is hardly authentic. Everything there is dosed with black bean sauce for some reason. Usually I refer to it
as Foon and Spork. Cheers, Barb

Mike said...

Hi Barb,

hope you are able to locate the Nam Prik Pao.

I have not been to Spoon and Fork, but I will keep it in mind if I do come across it. In my experience, most Thai restaurants are not owned by Thais, most are Vietnamese or Chinese or Western, it's great to find the gems.

As for fresh green peppercorns, I found this entry from Torontolife.com:

The season is almost over for fresh Viet­namese green pepper­corns. With more flavour and less heat than trad black, they’re perfect for steak au poivre. $4.50 for 28 grams. Selsi Searocks, St. Lawrence Market South, lower level, 95 Front St. E., 416-854-9088.

Hope this helps, give them a call anyways.