Sawaddee ka welcome to hot thai kitchen so after years of hot thai kitchen i finally feel like you guys are
ready for a hardcore thai dish so we're gonna make nam prik gapi nam prik is our term for a spicy dip
and gapi is fermented shrimp paste so this is a super basic dish that every household makes
but it is a bit of an acquired taste and it's not something i would give someone as a first
introduction to thai cuisine but once you've acquired the taste i mean there is nothing
like it it is so delicious and umami and bursting with flavor and it's super easy let's get started
so first thing i'm going to do is i'm going to rehydrate my dried shrimp so
dry shrimp are going to give this umami and also just meatiness okay so i'm just going to
pour some just plain water and then i'm going to microwave it for a minute or however long it takes
your microwave to get the steaming hot you can just use a kettle if you want but this is faster
so that just needs to cool a little bit it just needs a few minutes let's talk about
shrimp paste shrimp paste is a fermented tiny little shrimp or krill and the taiwan
this is the most common brand that you can find at southeast asian grocery store and when you
open it it is this delicious gray paste pro tip don't keep it open if you have no plans using it
otherwise your place starts smelling like shrimp paste um so that's the thai one you can also you
can't find this use the malaysian one it comes in a dry block like this it's a little drier but
tastes smell almost exactly the same and you just have to slice it off like butter except don't put
it on your toast so those are both good to use and then there's also a chinese one that might be
more available for some of you the flavor is a little bit different it's a little saltier
i think it's an okay substitute if it's used in a small amount like in curry paste things like that
but for this one where the flavor of the shrimp paste really is everything i would try to stick
with the thai or the malaysian just so you have a you know representative flavor of what it's
supposed to be and then what it is not is this this is also a product that's labeled as shrimp
paste but it is not fermented shrimp paste it is just the shrimp fat in the head you know
the orange stuff shrimp tamale that they cook with some seasoning and then there'll be lots
of oil in it because it's been cooked and that is delicious and fried rice and stir-fried but it is
a very different thing that cannot be used in this recipe just fyi okay
let's get pounding there's not much to do starting first with the hardest thing to pound which is
dry shrimp and nam prick is one of those things that is such a basic part of thai cuisine
when people go out to eat there's usually one nam and it's like a veggies and dip you know what
i mean like it's a palette cleanser because there's lots of fresh vegetables it's spicy
okay so now i got my dry shrimps in here i'm going to pound them until they're fluffy
okay so that's good you still have
a few chunks but for the most part it's broken up then two cloves of garlic and as
much chilies as you want i'm just gonna do one for this because we're not making a lot so like
all that chili is going to be concentrated in a small amount you want this completely fine
yeah whenever you're pounding a lot of stuff the way to do it without over exerting yourself is
to do it in a way that you start with the tough things and build softer things on top of it
okay so now that that's super fine so you can't really see chili skins are totally okay but you
don't want to see chunks of chilies chunks of garlic or anything like that okay oops and then
palm sugar so i'm gonna add my palm sugar and this looks like a lot but trust me by the end
this is done you will not even think there was any sugar in it there it shouldn't taste
sweet at all but if you don't add it it'll be so salty so sour completely off balance so this is
absolutely important so i'm just pounding until the big chunks are broken down and eventually
it'll dissolve in all the liquid like so because the sugar has dissolved okay now the star of the
show the shrimp paste so this stuff that i'm using is actually artisanal shrimp paste that
i got from thailand which i save for things like this where you can really taste the shrimp paste
now at this point i'm just pounding so that it's mixed no longer in big chunks oh yes the smell is
starting to come out i mean talk about umami there is nothing more umami than this the dry shrimp the
shrimp paste i mean this no msg needed right here that's the consistency you're looking for and then
the liquids will go in so now lime juice lots and lots of lime juice this should be tart and salty
mix that in and at this point you just use a spoon
the shrimp paste is already salty but i'm still gonna add a little bit of fish sauce anyway
not so much because i needed saltier but fish sauce has a different flavor right a different set
of complexity that i like to add just a little bit not too much and then what i'm gonna add now
is some water because this is really intense you can serve it like this but i feel like
if i serve it like this i can only put a little bit on each thing and it'll be too much but if
i dilute it with some water then i can really load it on more and it's more satisfying that way
so just a couple tablespoon and you can taste and adjust at this point all right that's it
here we go this is exactly what i am talking about delicious umami paste i need to give
it a taste because every and you really should because everybody's shrimp paste is going to be
diff have different flavor different saltiness and so on and so forth
yes so good so good there's nothing quite like it now it looks a little dull so we're gonna
garnish it with some extra fresh chilies just into big chunks
and now it's just a little bit more colorful this was super easy but it's only half the battle
or a quarter of the battle three other three quarters of your battle is actually what you
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going to spend most of your time so okay most households it's not this elaborate platter
but i just wanted to show you like if you were going to a nice restaurant what would be
the fully loaded no pickabi so let me first just transfer the dip into our serving bowl right here
nice okay let me walk you through some options for serving this with okay the most cla the simplest
one is just some steamed and fresh vegetables anything that you eat with a dip classically
there's some steamed cabbage some steamed long beans and i got steamed brussels sprouts because
i thought hey brussels sprouts are like tiny meany little cabbage so it should work we'll find
out but i think it should work some raw cucumber anything else carrots whatever crunchy stuff would
work as well and then we've got fried vegetables which come in two different forms so i've got
this one here which is eggplant that's just simply dipped in egg and then pan fried that's it that's
all you do you don't see you don't season anything because this is all the seasoning
and then my favorite two things fried mackerel this is an asian style mackerel which is very
short but you can use the regular big mackerel works totally fine and a vegetable omelet
so typically we make an omelette using a vegetable called cha um or climbing
waffle but here i can't find it so i like to use skyline or chinese broccoli just finely chop it
mix it with some eggs you fry it until it's nice and golden brown on the bottom side you carefully
flip the whole thing and cook it until it's all the way cooked through if i could only have one
thing it would be this all right and of course you need rice and then you're good to go time to eat
get our rice in and i'm going for my favorite you've never had this before little at a time
little goes a long way okay that's a little that's a little
that's a little well for me i'm hardcore so don't eat blue
unmistakable that smell unmistakable
it's so good
so good so good this is like flavors of thailand like you eat this and like immediately transported
to thailand or the southeast asia in general because in in like malaysia indonesia they also
have dips similar to this it's so packed full of umami it's salty but it's also tart from the
lime juice but that sugar that we added balance it out it does not taste at all sweet but again
it's a well-balanced flavor i just i if you've never had it there's nothing i can say that will
give you an idea of what this actually tastes like so you just have to try it so the recipe as always
will be on hattaaikichen.com and a special thanks to our patreon members who help support the show
if you want to know what that's all about check out the link in the description below and if you
make this i definitely want to see a photo of it so tag me at hot thai kitchen everywhere alright
thank you as always for watching and i will see you next time for your next delicious time