Listen to the Thai name pronunciationThis page is also available in: Thai
The northeast region of Thailand, bordered with Laos in the north and Cambodia in the east, is a rough land to work. Issan, as it known in Thai, suffers droughts and deficiencies, the land gets really dry and unforgiving making in some area the digging for mineral salt a better business than agriculture.
Issan food is made from bricks of simplicity. It reflects its people coarse life and is in general pungent and hot. Eaten with sticky rice, only very little is required to flavor the rice in the hands of the entire family. I love the rustic Issan food and I own a sincere admiration to their culinary ingenuity.
Today I am bringing to the spotlights a menu of grilled pork, marinated in a paste of the three kings – garlic, coriander and white pepper – before grilled to be tender and moist.
To accompany, I serve a very spicy, sour-salty and sweet tomato relish that is loaded with chilies. I know, I tend to spend my chilies supply quit fast, but you can tune down the chilies and might just discover a new trick to impress your friends the next time you will fire up that BBQ…
Grilled Pork Marinated in Garlic, Coriander and Pepper Served with Spicy Hot and Sour Tomato Relish Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2kg Pork
For the marinade
- 2 Coriander roots
- 2 Garlic cloves
- 1 tbs white pepper corns
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbs light soy sauce
- 1 tbs oyster sauce
For the tomato relish
- 10 shallots
- 10 garlic cloves
- 3 red peppers
- 3 long red peppers
- 10 bird’s eye chilies
- 1 banana pepper
- 3 large tomatoes
- 1 tbs tamarind paste
- 1 tbs fish sauce
- 1/2 tbs palm sugar
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
Preparations – Grilled pork:
- In a pestle and mortar, work the coriander roots, garlic and peppercorns with the sugar and salt as abrasives, until smooth.
Mix in the oyster sauce and light soy sauce.
- Rub the pork with the marinade and let rest of at least 20 minutes before grilling or BBQ.
Preparations – Tomato relish:
- In an iron cast wok, on very low heat roast the garlic, shallots, chilies and tomatoes. Mix from time to time until the shallots are soft, garlic bit charred and the tomato caramelized.
- Remove from heat.
- Separate the tomatoes from the rest of the ingredients.
- In a pestle and mortar, work the roasted garlic, shallots and chilies to a smooth paste.
- Add tomatoes and gently squeeze them with the pestle.
- Season the relish with tamarind paste, fish sauce, palm sugar and white pepper.
Taste and adjust flavors. It should be sour-salty and bit sweet
Bitter gourds have long been prized in Asia for a trait considered a defect in cucumbers: bitterness. We tend to believe that anything bitter is medicinal and, in this case, we could be correct. The bitter gourd is said to cure a wide range of ailments – from gastrointestinal conditions to cancers, and from diabetes to HIV.
Also known as bitter melons, bitter gourds are pale green, with an irregular, warty surface. Typically, they are eaten following an initial treatment to remove some of the bitterness; often they are stuffed, to complement their somewhat eccentric bite.
A quick and tasty dish from the hot mouth of the dragon with only three ingredients! Flowering Chives, Pork Liver and Garlic.
Flowering Chives are all year round favorites for their mild garlicky flavor, and can be purchased inexpensively at almost any Asian market.
In Thailand we like to fry them with pork, pork liver or shrimp. These flowering chives are actually the unopened bud stems of garlic chives, also known as Chinese chives.
This salad is quick and easy to make. The dish enjoys carnival of colors and defined flavors that stand in line to tease your palate; Sour, Salty, Hot and a feathery touch of Sweet. They are all ready to play in this less than 10 minutes preparations.
The dressing is made with equal parts of lime juice and fish sauce, pinch of sugar and chilies as much as you dare. Mix just before serving. It goes well with a plate of hot white rice and crispy Thai omelette.
ผัดกะเพราหมูสับ – Stir Fried Pork With Holy Basil and Chilies Recipe – excerpt from the book “Classic Thai
Stir Fry Dishes” by Thaifoodmaster
Naem is a fermented sausage made with pork, pork skins, cooked sticky rice (glutinous), fresh garlic, salt, sugar and bird’s eye chilies. The sausage is wrapped in banana leaves or synthetic casings, and fermented for 3-5 days at about 30 degrees (C) and 50% humidity. The fermentation process enables the growth of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts, mostly lactobacilli, which accounts for the sourness of the sausage. The salt acts as an inhibitor – preventing the meat from going rotten, allowing the lactic acid bacteria and yeasts to feed on the rice and sugar, and fermenting the meat to perfection.
