Coconut Milk and Fermented Soy Bean Sauce

(pic: 123rf)

Ingredients :

1 and half cups coconut milk
half cup fermented soybeans
4 shallots, sliced
3 tbsp minced shrimp
3 tbsp minced pork
3-5 spur chilies
3 tbsp palm sugar
1 tbsp tamarind juice
salt, to be added only if desired as fermented soy beans are already very salty

How To Make :

1. Boil coconut milk in a frying pan until oil comes to the surface. Strain the fermented soybeans, place the solids in a mortar with 2 shallots and pound until mixed thoroughly. Dip up and mix with coconut milk in the pan over low heat. Add shrimp, pork, chili and cook at low heat until done. Add the 2 remaining sliced shallots, palm sugar and tamarind juice to taste, bring to a boil and remove from the heat.

2. Serve with fresh vegetables, such as cabbage, cucumbers, coriander, and young mango and hog plum leaves.

(Source : The Best of Thai Cuisine ; Sisamon Kongpan)