The Thai salsa that zings

Nam prik adds zest to vegetables, meat

Nam prik, a sort of salsa, is served with raw vegetables, sausage or fish. While it can be made with a food processor, grinding it with a mortar and pestle produces a better texture. (Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune Photos)

The composition of nam prik can vary by region. Most recipes contain chili peppers and may also use Thai eggplants, shown, garlic and shrimp paste.

Vegetables sometimes seem to need a little kick to make them more, um, interesting. Long ago, the cooks of Thailand must have realized that when they developed nam prik, a sort of salsa for vegetables and meat. David Thompson, in his 2002 classic cookbook “Thai Food,” contends that nam prik “is the most ancient style of Thai dish.”

Nam prik recipes vary from southern to northern Thailand, but most contain chili peppers. Before 1492, of course, there were no chilies in Thailand. After the New World was opened up by European explorers, chili peppers became a staple throughout Asia. With dozens of varieties growing abundantly in Thailand's tropical climate, chilies exponentially enhanced the range of flavors available to Thai cooks.

In Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, a restaurant named Tongtemtoh specializes in serving cuisine from the country's northern reaches. At Tongtemtoh last January, we enjoyed several paradigm-shattering menu items, including fermented pork, uncooked pig meat with a raw egg on top, a dish likely to never be allowed on a U.S. menu. Alongside the fermented pork was a spread of fresh Thai vegetables, including long beans and cabbage, as well as relatively mild Thai sausage and fried pork skin. In the center of this appetizing platter were bowls of nam prik.

Nam prik recipes sometimes tell home chefs to zip ingredients through a food processor. Dew Suriyawan, also from Chiang Mai and now co-owner/chef at Chicago's newly opened Immm Rice & Beyond, prefers the old ways: a stone mortar and pestle. Grinding everything together, according to Suriyawan, “releases the liquid of the ingredients, resulting in better flavor and aroma. Pounding also reduces ingredients to a pulp so they meld together into a paste. Making nam prik in the food processor is like chopping the ingredients into small pieces, and the flavor is not as mellow.”

We agree that flavors marry better when ingredients are pounded together, and inconsistencies make this Thai salsa even more interesting.

The following recipe was provided by the chefs at Tongtemtoh, modified with suggestions from Suriyawan.

David Hammond is a freelance columnist.