Nam Prik Noom
Northern Thai Eggplant And Chili DipChili dips are anexcellent way to incorporate vegetables, chilies and proteins into aneasy-to-eat dish. They hold for long periods of time, are very portable andprovide a nutritionally packed quick meal. If you love spicy food, this is theperfect dip for you. For the plant-based version of this classic dish, we areusing vegetarian fish sauce (or use Thai soybean sauce if you can’t find it),leaving out the traditional 1 teaspoon of Thai shrimp paste and using puffedrice chips for savory crunch instead of traditional pork rinds.
Ingredients
MAKES: 2 SERVINGS
- 10 –15 6-inch [15-cm] bamboo skewers, soaked
- 5 fresh Thai green chilies
- 3 cloves garlic peeled
- 3 shallots peeled
- 2 small Chinese eggplants with peel
- 3 Anaheim chili peppers with peel
- Canola or other high-temperature cooking oil for brushing
- 2½ tbsp 38 ml vegetarian fish sauce
- Puffed rice chips
- 1 cucumber bias sliced
- 6 oz 170 g fresh green beans or long beans, cut into 3-inch (8-cm) pieces
- Thai Sticky Rice
Instructions
- Similar to making mini-kabobs, separately skewer the Thai chilies, garlic, shallots, eggplants and Anaheim chilies.
- Preheat a grill pan on high for about 2 minutes.
- Lightly oil the chilies, garlic, shallots and vegetables, then place the skewers on the grill pan.
- Cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side until the skins char, similar to roasting bell peppers.
- You want them blackened and the flesh very tender.
- Place the roasted vegetables in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap to help steam the skins off.
- Peel the peppers and remove the seeds.
- Scrape off the charred skin from the eggplant.
- Cut the eggplants into a rough, large dice to make them easier to process.
- Transfer the Thai chilies, garlic and shallots to a food processor.
- Run the machine, stopping and scraping down the sides, then process again until the mixture is broken down into small pieces.
- Next, add the eggplant, Anaheim chilies and vegetarian fish sauce.
- Pulse in short bursts to combine but maintain some texture in the dish.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning if you’d like.
- Serve with the puffed rice chips, cucumber, long beans and sticky rice.