What is a nam prik?
In Thailand most meals consist of a number of mixed dishes with different tastes, ingredients, cooking styles and textures.
For example, a meal may have a soup, a salad, a curry, a grilled item, greens, dips and vegetables, something fried, and rice.
There are many types of nam priks, just as there are many kinds of dips.
It literally means 'chilli water', but more often than not it's a sumptuous puree whose taste can range from subtle through to extremely pungent and volatile.
They grow on trees – bushes actually, unlike money,and they're the size and shape of green garden peas.
The second is the apple eggplant, or white Thai eggplant (Maekua praow).
These are a little bit smaller than a golf ball and they also get quartered and simmered in Thai coconut curries a lot.
This is a vegetarian dip!
It has a great balance of flavours, enhanced by the sweet basil stir-fried in at the end.
Nam Prik ingredients
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Thai pea eggplant (maekua puong) 1/2 cup / 80 grams
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Thai apple eggplant (Maekua praow) 5 each / 80 grams
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Garlic, fresh cloves (first batch) 4 each
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Chilli, fresh green Thai 4 each (or more – up to your taste)
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Garlic, fresh cloves (second batch) 10 each
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Salt – to taste.
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Fresh sweet basil leaves (Bai horapa) 1 cup
Method
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Boil the eggplants whole until they're soft and fully cooked. They won't look very appetising, and you'll wonder if you've cooked them too much. Don't worry. They'll be fine. See picture of the nasty looking things below for instant relief. They're going to taste awesome. Trust me.
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Crush first batch of garlic and chillies in mortar and pestle
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Add cooked, drained eggplants. (Remove stalks from the larger eggplants)
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Crush until eggplants are mashed up and soft
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Heat a little oil in a wok or frying pan
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Fry the second batch of garlic
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When garlic is golden and smelling great, add the crushed eggplant dip and stir-fry it
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Season to taste with salt.
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Throw in the fresh picked basil leaves. Stirfry 2 minutes more.
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Serve the nam prik with a mix of raw and cooked vegetables to eat with it, or with sticky rice.
*Great veg choices include carrot, boiled broccoli, boiled cauli, morning glory, bamboo, raw cabbage, fried tofu, green beans, boiled okra and boiled baby corn
See the soft-boiled yukky looking eggplants? They'll taste exquisite.
Pick the stalks off the big ones at this point.
Mash the eggplants.
Stirfry the rest of the garlic, add the eggplant mash and then add freshly picked and washed sweet basil to the nam prik
Here's the finished 'nam prik maekua'.
I love this recipe, but I'm also into babaganoush, moussaka, grilled eggplant, and eggplant parmigiana, as well as the plentiful Middle Eastern eggplant salads.
What's your favourite eggplant recipe?
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