Nam ngiao

A tomato and pork rib noodle broth with no coconut, thickened by dried kapok flowers.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains curry paste, which usually contains shrimp paste, fish sauce, pork, pork stock.

Ingredients

• 800 g pork ribs, in short lengths
• 400 g minced pork
• 500 g cherry tomatoes, halved
• 20 g dried dok ngiao
• 1.5 litres pork stock
• 5 tablespoons northern curry paste
• 2 tablespoons fermented soybean paste
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 400 g khanom chin noodles
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 4 spring onions, sliced
• 200 g pickled mustard greens, to serve

Method

1. NO COCONUT MILK, AND TOMATO IS THE BODY. The khao soi on this site is the coconut noodle bowl; this is the other one, and it is thin, red and sour-savoury rather than rich. They are not variations on each other.
2. DOK NGIAO IS THE DRIED KAPOK FLOWER and it is what makes this taste of itself. Soak it in warm water 30 minutes until soft, then trim any hard stem. It gives a slippery body and a faintly musty note nothing else provides; without it the soup is a pork and tomato broth.
3. Fry the curry paste in the oil 3 minutes until it darkens.
4. Minced pork in, broken up, 4 minutes.
5. Soybean paste in, 1 minute, pressed against the pan.
6. Ribs in, turned through the paste, then the stock.
7. Simmer covered 1 hour, until the ribs are tender.
8. TOMATOES IN TWO LOTS: half at the start of the hour so they collapse and colour the broth, half in the last 10 minutes so there are whole pieces in the bowl.
9. Soaked dok ngiao in for the last 20 minutes.
10. Fish sauce at the end. Taste -- it should be savoury and sour with very little sweetness.
11. Over khanom chin noodles, with pickled greens, spring onion and crisp pork rind.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Thailand · All recipes