Thai Eggplant Dip

In a Facebook someone recently presented a recipe for an eggplant dip called “Nam Prik Makuea Yao” ( น้ำพริกมะเขือยาว ). I spontaneously recreated it, as I still had an eggplant that needed to be used. However, which doesn’t happen very often, I did adapt the recipe somewhat to my European palate and reduced the amount of Plaa Ra and chilis. Instead, I used more fish sauce. I also felt it lacked some acidity, so I mixed in some tamarind paste at the end. So here’s a Thai eggplant dip in the softer Farang version.

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Preparation

First we peel the onion and garlic cloves, then we cut the onion into thin rings and the garlic into thin slices. Finally, we cut the eggplants into small cubes.

Now we heat a non-stick pan without oil and roast the eggplants, onion and garlic in it, turning regularly for about ten minutes, until everything is lightly browned and smells aromatic. Then we add the dried Thai chilis and roast everything together for another two to three minutes until the chilis are also lightly roasted.

We remove the roasted ingredients from the pan and let them cool down a bit. Once everything has cooled to lukewarm, we put the ingredients into a stone mortar and pound them until a dry paste has formed. Then we add the fish sauce, Plaa Ra and tamarind paste and mix everything well together.

We transfer the finished dip into a bowl and let it cool down a bit more. We serve it together with jasmine or sticky rice as well as raw or steamed vegetables for dipping.