How to make two Thai chilli sauces, nam prik num and nam prik ong – delicious accompaniments to almost any dish

At many restaurants in Thailand, part of the menu will be devoted to nam prik chilli sauces. These can be wildly different, ranging from mild to fiery, subtle to pungent, and made with a huge variety of ingredients including meats, seafood (fresh and dried) and vegetables. What they all have in common is that they are served as a dipping sauce or paste accompaniment to another huge range of ingredients.

Nam prik num

I love this nam prik because it seems so healthy. It’s vege­table-based (although it uses fish sauce, so it isn’t vegetari­an) and is eaten with more vegetables. It’s also delicious with fried pork crackling and grilled (or pan-fried) pork sausage, preferably sai oua, from Thailand. This is not easy to find, so you can substitute another type of pork sausage.

If you can’t find large Thai chillies, use milder ones (such as banana chillies) and bump up the heat by adding green bird’s-eye chillies. If you have a barbecue fired up, then char the vegetables on that. You can also cook the vegetables under the oven grill.

400 grams Chinese or Japanese eggplants
2-3 large hot green Thai chillies
4 garlic cloves, peeled
3-4 shallots, peeled
About 20ml fresh lime juice
30ml fish sauce
5 grams palm sugar (or granulated sugar)
About ½ tsp fine sea salt

To serve (use as many as you want):
Romaine lettuce leaves
Carrot sticks
Celery sticks
Blanched string beans
Blanched okra
Pork crackling pieces
Grilled pork sausages, preferably sai oua, in bite-size pieces

1 Heat the oven grill to high. Place the eggplants, chillies, garlic cloves and shallots on a shallow tray and slide it into the oven so the vegetables are about 2cm from the heating element. Grill the vegetables until the eggplants and chillies are deeply and evenly charred, while the garlic cloves and shallots should be burned in spots.