Nam Prik Jaew (literally, Chili sauce) is a Dip, "Nam Prik" means a Dip dish in Central Thai and "Jaew" also means a Dip dish in Isan or Northeastern Thai.

This spicy, sweet and sour tamarind sauce is original from North-Eastern Thai cuisine or Isan (in Thai). North Eastern of Thailand is the biggest part of the country and also is the driest place in the country too. Most people do farming and their lives rely on water from the rain (some problems have been solved after we had had the dams). Their lives haven’t been easy so lots of people from Isan migrate to other parts of the country (to be a cheap labour, especially in Bangkok) and also after harvesting the crops, they will go to Bangkok to work as the taxi drivers, in the same time they bring their food with them. There are many Isan dishes become popular and well known for example Papaya Salad, Lab, Sticky Rice, Grilled Chicken and etc.

Why is Isan cuisine so popular? If you ask Isan people or North Eastern Thais they will answer “because it’s “Sab or Sab - E – Lee”, meaning is “yummy”.

Ingredients

½  cup       of thick liquid from (100 g of Tamarind (1/2 cake of tamarind from 200g package) and 1 cup of Water)

½  cake      Palm Sugar (see the image on Herbs page)

6  tbsp       Water or chicken broth

5-6 tbsp     Pan Dripping

2  tbsp        Fish Sauce

2 tbsp         Lime juice

3 tbsp        Ground Roasted Sticky Rice

1 tsp          Thai Roasted Ground Chilli pepper (you can adjust the amount of chilli, some chillies are very hot and some not if you use different kind of chilli).
2                Shallots, chopped (optional)

2                Green Onion, cut a quarter inch long.

Instruction

1  Soak tamarind in water (1cup), (see the image) until tamarind is soft and becomes thick liquid. Discard seeds and pods, we need only ½ cup of the liquid.

2. Put ½ tamarind liquid in a pot on medium high heat, add water or chicken broth, pan dripping and fish sauce bring to boil until palm sugar milted.

3.  Remove from heat, add lime juice, ground chilli pepper and ground roasted sticky rice.

4.  Have a taste if needs to be added some more fish sauce, lime juice or sugar to suit you favour.

5.  Add green onion and serve with grilled chicken or turkey.