nam prik pao (thai chili paste)

Nam Prik Pao (thai chili paste) is a common ingredient used in Thai cooking.  It is spicy and sweet, with rich flavors of roasted vegetables and is often enriched with shrimp.  I’ve used it in recipes on this site, and it is so common that it should be pretty easy to find in a jar outside of Thailand.

I have been on the hunt for a recipe for nam prik pao that doesn’t require 7 hours of commitment but still offers all the flavor.  Searches on the internet largely gave me a headache.  I made a version from a Thai cookbook that I have and it produced something much closer to the Red Pepper Jelly I make each year – quite sweet with a hint of spice and none of the deep layers of flavor that come from roasting the vegetables first.  One recipe I found online actually required that you place all of the ingredients outside in the sun for several days to allow them to dry.  (In Bangkok I suspect that this activity may lead to dried peppers that taste a bit like car fumes.)  Certainly there are people out there who are experts in authentic Thai cooking and can tell you all 76 steps that a Thai grandmother would take to make this stuff at home.  I have to be honest – I just could not accept that it has to be so much trouble.

I nearly came to the conclusion that I should stick with the stuff in a jar and give up on ever being able to produce my own.  But what kind of foodie blogger would I be if I didn’t try to tackle at least one or two ridiculous food endeavors and share them here.   It also helped that finally I entered into this endeavor knowing that I would gladly sacrifice the pride of making nam prik pao the way it was made in this country 200 years ago, if it produced a recipe that I could (and would) actually make again.

My first step was a little taste test of just a few of the hundreds of Thai Chili Pastes available on the market at my local grocery store in Bangkok.  Literally, there is an entire section of the grocery store dedicated to this product, so there’s no shortage.  They vary a bit in taste, but I find that my favorite version (even when tasted amidst these other options) is the one on the middle right by Mae Praenom.  It may just be that this suits my western palate because it is the least “fishy” of the options and the sweetest tasting.

These versions in the jar actually have very few ingredients.  Primarily the ingredients are red chilis, onions, garlic, sugar, vinegar, oil and shrimp or shrimp paste.  Using this as a guide, and with the knowledge that part of the richness in flavor of the paste comes from the roasting (or sometimes frying) of the ingredients, I set to work.  After several attempts, it became clear that I prefer to make nam prik pao vegetarian style, getting a savory element from mushrooms rather than ground shrimp.  I tend to like the shrimp flavor, but found that in the following recipe, I preferred a non-fishy flavor.  If you prefer to use shrimp, simply substitute 2 tablespoons of dried shrimp for the mushrooms (dried shrimp shown below).

After all the effort and a few terrible batches, the recipe that follows, met all of my expectations, and was easier to execute than any of the recipes I could find elsewhere.  I actually liked the finished homemade paste much more than the kind I’ve been buying in a jar, although there will certainly be times that the convenience of the jar will win out.

 

nam prik pao (thai chili paste)
makes about 1 cup

Note:  The following recipe is a vegetarian version of nam prik pao, which is made without any type of fish.  If you prefer to use fish, substitute 2 Tablespoons of small dried shrimp for the shitake mushrooms.  The paste will keep for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

-Ingredients-

• 13 red chilis, separated (10 will be roasted, 3 will be used raw)
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1/2 of a large onion, peel removed and cut into quarters
• 2 shiitake mushrooms
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1/4 cup water

-Method-

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Slice 10 of the red chilies in half and place them face down on a baking sheet.  Place garlic cloves and onion on the baking sheet, insuring that none of the vegetables are overlapping.  Bake, without stirring, until chilis begin to blacken in spots, about 40 minutes.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature.
2. Cut the 3 remaining chilis in half lengthwise.  Gently remove the seeds and membranes from both the roasted and raw chilies.  (The membrane and seeds contain the majority of the heat in these peppers.  If you remove all of the membrane and seeds, the resulting paste will still be spicy, but not as spicy as if you leave some of the seeds and membrane in.  I recommend removing as much of the seeds and membrane as you can at this stage.  Set them off to the side.  When the paste is cooking on the stove later, you can taste it and gradually add some of the seeds back in to increase the heat.)
3. Gently squeeze the garlic cloves to extract the roasted garlic, and discard the peels.  Put garlic, chilis, onions and mushrooms in the bowl of a food processor.  Pulse until the mixture is finely and evenly chopped.  (It will be nearly smooth and ground to a paste in some spots.)
4. Place the chopped vegetables, sugar, vinegar and water in a small pot over medium heat.  Cook, stirring frequently.  If the paste begins to boil, reduce the temperature to maintain a low simmer.   Continue cooking until the mixture becomes smooth and thick, about 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.  Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Tagged as: nam prik pao, thai, thai chili paste, vegetarian