Gaaeng naawk maaw is a light and refreshing soup served at room temperature. The ingredients are meticulously sliced as if for a salad, placed in a serving bowl, and covered with a salty and naturally sweet shrimp broth. At the table, diners can adjust the soup to their preferred flavor profile using granulated sugar, lime juice, or pickled garlic brine; hence the name – gaaeng naawk maaw – which literally means “a curry dish outside the pot” or “to cook curry outside the pot”. (Note: The word gaaeng (แกง) in Thai is both a verb and a noun).
The ingredients added to the soup include hand-pulled shrimp meat threads and two types of hand-pulled smoky and savory grilled fish flakes, along with elongated slices of cooling and calming cucumber, thin strips of sour mango, and thinly sliced sweet and sour pickled garlic. Some versions also include madan (sour cucumber, มะดัน) (garcinia schomburgkiana), pickled Asian spiderflower (ผักเสี้ยนดอง), or crispy fried Thai garlic (กระเทียมไทยเจียว).
The broth is made by cooking whole unshelled shrimp heads-on in water, and then seasoned to a sharp-salty profile using fish sauce or salt. The broth should be salty enough to accommodate the other sour and sweet elements, yet clear and transparent so as not to mask the natural sweetness of the shrimp. In addition, the broth serves as a savory, cushioning canvas, with the dynamic, salad-like interactions between the ingredients playing on top.
Since, no heat is involved when bringing together the elements of the dish, the natural textures of the cucumber, mango and pickled garlic are preserved, and their taste remains unburst and contained. This paves a sensory path that begins with the soft, smoky umami of the grilled fish flakes, and continues through the sweet, orangey pieces of shrimp meat. It then progresses through the brittle cooling sensation presented by the cucumbers, and takes a turn into the crunchy, sour mango notes. The path culminates delightfully with the pickled garlic’s sweet and sour, fresh yet warming sensation.
Finally, the dish is garnished with brilliant stripes of greens and reds from thinly julienned fresh chilies and tender green coriander leaves, which contrast beautifully with the color of the other ingredients.
Gaaeng naawk maaw first appeared in Bpradtithin Bat Laae Joht Maai Haeht (ประติทินบัตร แล จดหมายเหตุ), a monthly journal published in 1889, containing recipes by Lady Plean Passakornrawong. Two decades later, Lady Plean published the same recipe in her book Maae Khruaa Huaa Bpaa (MKHP) (ท่านผู้หญิงเปลี่ยน ภาสกรวงศ์ตำราแม่ครัวหัวป่าก์) under the name Khmer-style dtohm yam soup.
Nevertheless, the first name, gaaeng naawk maaw, survived and appeared in subsequent recipe books describing dishes allegedly prepared for King Rama VI. Later, the dish was occasionally given new names such as gaaeng dtohm goong bproong soht (แกงต้มกุ้งปรุงสด). Gaaeng naawk maaw even survived the Siamese revolution of 1932, appearing in 1938’s Popular Modern Dishes under the alias of “Democracy Curry” (แกงประชาธิปไตย ตำราแม่ครัวทันสมัยนิยม; gaaeng bpra chaa thip dtai).
Since the 1950s, however, the dish gradually disappeared from the global consciousness of Thai cuisine.
In MKHP, Lady Plean Passakornrawong begins preparing the dish by pulling the black vein from the backs of giant river prawns before cooking them, shell-on, in boiling water. When the shrimp are cooked, she seasons the broth with fish sauce, suggesting salt as an alternative for those who dislike fish sauce. She then removes the shrimp from the pot, peels the shells, and pulls the meat into small pieces.
Lady Plean continues, grilling the sun-dried semi-salted snakehead fish and snakeskin gourami fish; she refers to these fish by their Old Siamese names,bplaa haang (ปลาหาง) for the snakehead fish and bplaa bai mai (ปลาใบไม้) for the gourami.
After grilling the fish, she pulls their meat into small flakes. She then slices the green mango into thin elongated juliennes and the cucumber into equal-length long pieces.
Lady Plean uses less pickled garlic than the amount of mango and cucumber, which should be used in equal amounts. She peels the garlic and slices it thinly.
When all the ingredients are ready, she arranges them in a bowl and pours the shrimp broth over them.
She seasons it with lime juice and granulated sugar to a salty-sour flavor profile, and then garnishes the dish with fresh red long chilies and coriander leaves.
Thaifoodmaster’s version
Similar to a salad, we can adjust the intensity of each ingredient’s identity through size and shape. Try thin and elongated juliennes for a tingled texture, or use small, diced cubes for an individual burst of textures – but whatever you do, be attentive to the visual rhythm, which, when cooking Central-style aristocratic Siamese cuisine, should always express a calmness.
Mixed Clear Shrimp Soup with Salted Fish, Shrimp, Cucumber, Mango and Pickled Garlic (แกงนอกหม้อ ; gaaeng naawk maaw)
Gaaeng naawk maaw is a light and refreshing soup served at roomtemperature. The ingredients are meticulously sliced as if for a salad, placedin a serving bowl, and covered with a salty and naturally sweet shrimp broth. Atthe table, diners can adjust the soup to their preferred flavor profile usinggranulated sugar, lime juice, or pickled garlic brine; hence the name – gaaeng naawk maaw – which literally means "a curry dish outside thepot" or “to cook curry outside the pot”.
Tom yum soup from the late 19th-century Siam to present days. Including a step-by-step recreation of tom yum soup with snakehead fish (dtohm yam bplaa chaawn, ตัมยำปลาช่อน) as recorded by Maawm Sohm Jeen (Raa Chaa Noopraphan) (หม่อมซ่มจีน, ราชานุประพันธุ์) in her book “Tam Raa Gap Khao” (ตำรากับเข้า), published in 1890 (2433 BE, 109RE).
Yam sohm choon is a sour green mango salad served with grilled fermented shrimp paste; roughly chopped shallots; sweet pork condiment, deep-fried fluffy grilled catfish and seasoned with fish sauce, palm sugar and lime juice and topped with deep-fried dry chilies cut into small pieces.
If you follow Thai movies and TV dramas, you probably remember Sohm Choon, the adorable boy ghost character from the period romance movie Reun Mayura (1997), which was a love story between a beautiful woman and a handsome man living in different periods of time.
The first reference to sohm choon as a dessert appears in in the early 1800s, in the culinary poetry of King Rama II gaap heh chohm khreuuang khaao waan (กาพย์เห่ชมเครื่องคาว – หวาน). The poetry was sung during the royal barge’s procession, and this verse refers to sohm choon as a dish made of lychees. A closer look at other foods that are mentioned in the verse also reveals other dishes that are clearly of Chinese origin, such as boiled pork spleen (dtohm dtap lek ต้มตับเหล็ก), steamed bird’s nests (rang nohk neung รังนกนึ่ง) and persimmons (luuk phlap ลูกพลับ).
This is a classical Siamese spicy curry that displays a spicy, salty and sweet flavor profile, and uses common curry ingredients such as pea eggplants and young green chilies with an interesting dry spice profile.
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