Thai style dips and crudites
Instructions:
- A nice way to ring the changes on ever-popular raw vegetables with dips is to use a Thai dip. It livens up bland vegetables like you wouldn’t believe. Here are recipes for two dips, one a vegetarian version.
Shrimp Dip (Nam Prik)
- 3 tablespoons small dried shrimp;
- 1 clove garlic;
- 2 shallots or small red onions;
- 2 fresh red chillies;
- 2 tablespoons lime juice;
- 2 teaspoons palm sugar;
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce;
- 2 tablespoons water.
- Eggplant Dip (Nam Prik Makua)
- 1 medium-sized eggplant, about 350 g (11 oz);
- 1 lime;
- 3 small purple shallots, peeled;
- 1 small clove garlic, crushed;
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste;
- 1 teaspoon palm sugar;
- 1 fresh red chilli, sliced.
- Shrimp Dip
- Buy dried shrimp that are bright pink in colour and not too hard to the touch. Wash the dried shrimp and soak in a little warm water to cover for 10 minutes. Remove any sandy veins. Put the drained shrimp into a mortar and pound them with the garlic, shallots and chillies until mashed to a paste. Gradually stir in the lime juice, palm sugar, fish sauce and sufficient water to give a coating consistency.
- Serve in a small bowl surrounded by sticks of raw cucumber, celery and carrots, or lightly cooked asparagus and green beans.
- Eggplant Dip (Nam Prik Makua)
- Bring a pan of lightly salted water to the boil. Peel and dice the eggplant and drop into the water. Boil until tender, about 8 minutes. Drain well.
- Finely grate the lime zest and squeeze the juice.
- Put the eggplant into a food processor or blender with the rest of the ingredients and blend at high speed to form a pur.e. Taste and add more lime juice, salt or sugar if necessary. Serve with vegetables for dipping.