When I was in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, I followed a private cooking lesson, and tried several local restaurants. A dish that featured on the menu of local restaurants that serve Northern Thai food was “hors d’oeuvres”, an assortment of various raw and steamed vegetables, sausage, hard-boiled egg, and pork crackling with “dips”. The first recipe for such a dip that I am sharing with you is Nam Phrik Ong, which was also part of my cooking class. Its main components are tomato and pork and it is the mildest in flavor of the three dips I am writing about.
The recipe uses large dried red chiles. The Thai ones are called spur. If you can’t find those, substitute with guajillo. In my cooking class we did not use lemongrass, but it does add a nice freshness to the flavor.
Ingredients
Makes about 250 ml (1 cup)
- 225 grams (.5 lb) ground pork
- 225 grams (.5 lb) plum tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, chopped
- 1 Tbsp fish sauce
- 3 garlic cloves (about 15 grams), chopped
- 5 dried spur chiles (about 8 grams)
- 2 shallots (about 40 grams), chopped
- 1 lemongrass, bottom part only (optional), thinly sliced
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
Instructions
Remove the stalks from the dried chiles and cut them into pieces with scissors, then grind them in a spice grinder (or coffee grinder). There is no need to remove the seeds.
Add the shallots and garlic (and lemon grass, if using) to a mortar. This amount is too small to process with a blender or food processor.
Pound with a pestle until soft, then add the ground chili.
Pound some more.
Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a frying pan. Add the chili paste.
Stir over medium heat until fragrant.
Add the pork.
Stir over medium heat until the raw color has disappeared.
Add the tomatoes.
Season with a tablespoon of fish sauce, and stir to incorporate.
Partially cover the pan and simmer over low heat…
…until the tomatoes are cooked and soft. Taste to find out if any additional fish sauce is needed.
Serve with a selection of:
- steamed squash
- steamed eggplant (various types)
- steamed cabbage
- raw Napa cabage
- raw cucumber
- steamed longbeans
- raw winged beans
- hard-boiled egg
- Thai sausage
- pork crackling
It is nice to serve with several dips, two more recipes will follow.
Stefan's Gourmet Blog 
How very interesting! Looking at your plate one almost looks as if one has been to a somewhat ‘different’ smorgasbord table . . . then, my next thought said > not meat with vegetables but vegetables with a little meat 🙂 ! And my final thought now is > how healthy but tasty ! Don’t know much about Nothern Thai food but this has drawing power. Thanks!
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I love nam prik ong and often serve it as a dinner party starter as it is less challenging than a lot of nam prik recipes. I like to serve in a chafing pot sold for serving bagna cauda. I’ve been looking for a recipe of another mild nam prik featuring coconut milk and crab meat. If you know of this dish I once ate in Chantaburi do let me know.
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I have not heard of the crab and coconut dip, and neither does Google 😉 But it shouldn’t be too hard. Just make the same chili paste as for the nam prik ong (including lemongrass I’d say), and then mix it with crab meat and coconut milk. Season with fish sauce, lime juice, and palm sugar.
P.S. When you say “less challenging”, do you mean for the chef or for your guests? I don’t think nam prik gapi is challenging for me, but it certainly was for my guests…
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The crab and coconut dip tasted like it started with a green curry paste. I’ve eaten it maybe three times. Once in Isaan and the other times in Isaan restaurants elsewhere in Thailand.
Nam prik ong is less challenging for guests. I’ve never tried serving nam prik gapi to guests. I do sometimes serve the one based on blistered peeled peppers or blistered aubergines, but even those are a bit fiery for some guests.
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How fascinating! My only Thai eating and cooking experience was in Bangkok ! I didn’t this this but it sounds delicious!
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Richiede un po’ di coraggio … 😉
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E’ quasi un ragù 😉
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