← Nouns Cooking · Thai

Ingredients

• 1 clove Garlic
• 3 bird’s eye chillies or dried chillies
• ½ tbsp Palm sugar, grated
• 150 g Long beans (kacang panjang), cut into 3 cm pieces
• 1½ tbsp Fish sauce
• 1 tbsp Pla ra (Thai fermented fish sauce), bottled (optional)
• 1 tbsp tamarind purée
• ½ Lime, cut into small wedges
• 6 Cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2 tbsp roasted peanuts (optional)

Method

1. Pound the garlic and chillies in a mortar until roughly crushed, then add the palm sugar and pound until it melts in.
2. Add the beans and pound for 1 minute, just enough to bruise and split them so they soak up the dressing.
3. Add the fish sauce, pla ra, tamarind and lime wedges and pound gently, scraping and turning with a spoon so the lime releases its juice.
4. Add the tomatoes and press them lightly. Taste: hot, sour and salty first, then a little sweet. Top with peanuts and serve with sticky rice and grilled meat.

Tips

• Use bottled, pasteurised pla ra rather than raw fermented fish.
• Green beans work if you can’t find long beans; slice them a little thinner.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Hungry in Thailand Simply Suwanee