Now, nam prik ki ga is not the most popular chili dip out there. It is certainly not the yummiest sounding: roughly translated, it means “crow shit chili paste”. That said, it doesn’t look, or probably taste, anything like crow poo — bright, tart and fiery, it is a perfect foil to crisp veggies, barely hard-boiled eggs and a couple of well-seasoned pork meatballs, if you like that kind of stuff.
This is Grandma Yuwadee Bunnag’s recipe.
Nam prik ki ga (serves 4)
-6 prik chee fah
-7 small red chilies
-11 garlic cloves
-1 Tablespoon kapi (shrimp paste), wrapped in foil
-8 white shrimp, cleaned and cooked (reserve cooking water)*
-3 limes
– 1 1/2 Tablespoons fish sauce
-1 teaspoon nam than peep (palm sugar)
-pork meatballs**
1. Set chilies, garlic and shrimp paste to roast in oven at full whack until blackened (about 20 minutes). They will look like this when done:
2. Chop cooked shrimp into pieces.
3. Squeeze juice from limes.
4. Pound garlic and shrimp paste in mortar and pestle until a paste forms. Add chilies a few at a time, taking care to peel them of their blackened skins before pounding. Add shrimp until all is incorporated.
5. Add 1 teaspoon shrimp cooking liquid, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar. Taste for seasoning and add more cooking liquid if paste seems too “dry”. Finished paste will look like this:
6. Serve with fresh vegetables, rice and, if desired, fried pork meatballs.
*Use dried shrimp if you can’t use fresh shrimp.
**Make pork meatballs by mixing ground pork, minced garlic, salt and pepper. Then roll mix into palm-sized patties and fry in a Tablespoon of cooking oil until browned:
