Nam prik pao
The name means “roasted chilli paste” and it is one of the most popular pastes in Thai cooking. It is fried shallots and garlic, toasted dried chillies and dried shrimp, blended and slowly reduced with palm sugar, tamarind and fish sauce. The result is a thick, glossy, almost jam-like paste — sweet, smoky, sour and salty at once, more aromatic than fiery. It goes into tom yum soup, fried rice and noodles, even on bread. It takes patience with the shallots, as burnt ones turn bitter.
Your own work in that: 5 min.
- Slicing 15 min
- Frying shallots and garlic 15 min
- Toasting chilli and shrimp 5 min
- Blending 5 min
- Reducing the paste 15 min
- Cooling 20 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneSlice shallots and garlic
Slice the shallots and garlic thinly and evenly. Even slices fry evenly — thin ones burn before thick ones soften. Remove the stalks and seeds from the chillies and snip them into pieces with scissors.
Ingredients: 150 g shallots · 60 g garlic · 150 ml neutral oil · 20 g dried long red chillies, medium hot · 20 g dried shrimp · 1 tbsp shrimp paste
Fry shallots and garlic
Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat. Fry the shallots (8–10 minutes), then the garlic (3–4 minutes) separately until golden, lifting them out with a slotted spoon — about 15 minutes in all. Garlic browns faster and turns bitter in a few seconds. Keep the oil.
Ingredients: 150 g shallots · 60 g garlic · 150 ml neutral oil · 20 g dried long red chillies, medium hot · 20 g dried shrimp · 1 tbsp shrimp paste
Golden, not brown — burnt ones turn bitter.Toast chillies and shrimp
In a dry pan toast the chillies 1–2 minutes until darker and fragrant, then the shrimp for 2–3 minutes, together with the shrimp paste wrapped in foil — about 5 minutes in all. Open a window — toasting chillies smokes and catches the throat.
Ingredients: 150 g shallots · 60 g garlic · 150 ml neutral oil · 20 g dried long red chillies, medium hot · 20 g dried shrimp · 1 tbsp shrimp paste
The chillies darken, but do not blacken.Blend to a paste
Blend the shallots, garlic, chillies, shrimp and shrimp paste with 4 tablespoons of the frying oil to a thick, fairly smooth paste.
Ingredients: 150 g shallots · 60 g garlic · 150 ml neutral oil · 20 g dried long red chillies, medium hot · 20 g dried shrimp · 1 tbsp shrimp paste
Reduce with sugar and tamarind
Pour the rest of the oil into the wok, add the paste, palm sugar, tamarind and fish sauce. Cook over low heat 10–15 minutes, stirring constantly, until the paste darkens to red-brown, thickens like jam and the oil starts to separate at the edges.
Ingredients: 60 g palm sugar · 2 tbsp tamarind paste · 2 tbsp fish sauce
The oil separates at the edges — the paste is ready.Taste and adjust
Taste — nam prik pao should be sweet, smoky, slightly sour and salty. If too salty, add sugar; if flat, add fish sauce or tamarind.
Ingredients: 60 g palm sugar · 2 tbsp tamarind paste · 2 tbsp fish sauce
Cool and jar
Cool the paste 20 minutes and spoon it into a clean jar. Leave the oil that separates on top — it keeps the paste from drying out.
Ingredients: 150 g shallots · 60 g garlic · 150 ml neutral oil · 20 g dried long red chillies, medium hot · 20 g dried shrimp · 1 tbsp shrimp paste
How to use it
Add a spoonful to tom yum or tom kha soup, fried rice, noodles or stir-fried clams. In Thailand it is also spread on bread, for example buttered toast.
Ingredients: 60 g palm sugar · 2 tbsp tamarind paste · 2 tbsp fish sauce
Before you start
Storage
The paste keeps up to a month in the fridge if you always use a clean, dry spoon. Do not keep it in the pantry: shallots and garlic are low-acid vegetables, and under a layer of oil at room temperature they encourage the bacteria that cause botulism. For longer storage freeze it in portions (up to 3 months).
Vegan version
Leave out the dried shrimp and shrimp paste and swap the fish sauce for soy sauce. The paste is less punchy but still very aromatic.
Which chillies
Traditionally long dried prik chee fah chillies are used — red and medium hot. Small bird's eye chillies make a far hotter paste; if that is all you have, use fewer and make up the weight with mild dried peppers.