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Fermented Rice Vermicelli With Creamy Spicy Fish Sauce

ขนมจีนน้ำยาปลา

Khanom Geen Naam Ya Pla

Cultural Notes

This is a delicious dish which I have never seen on any Western restaurant menu. It may seem strange to garnish cold cooked noodles with a hot curry and raw vegetables but I can assure you that it really works. A good way to use up any left-over Italian spaghetti too!

		Traditional Recipe	Alternatives

		Fish
1	litre	Water
1	tsp	Salt
300	g	Mudfish, whole fish, with head, tail and skin, gutted and cleaned, and with scales removed	Mackerel or white flaky-fleshed fish such as cod or haddock, whole or fillets or Firm tofu, soya chunks, Quorn or mushrooms
50	g	Chinese key (krachai)

		Curry paste
3	tbsp	Lemon grass, finely sliced
1	tbsp	Galangal, finely sliced
2	tbsp	Garlic, crushed and roughly chopped
3	large	Dried long red chillies (seeds discarded) roughly chopped	Fresh large red chillies
3	tbsp	Shallots, roughly chopped
½	tsp	Shrimp paste	Omit if vegetarian
½	tsp	Salt
50	g	Chinese key (krachai)

		Sauce
1	tbsp	Vegetable oil
400	ml	Coconut cream
1	tbsp	Fish sauce	Light soy sauce

		Noodles
500	g	Fermented rice vermicelli (khanom geen) bought soft and freshly-prepared from the market. These are ready to eat – they do not need to be cooked.	240g dry weight of Japanese wheat flour vermicelli (somen) cooked in boiling water, drained and set aside to cool or 240g dry weight of dried fermented rice vermicelli (khanom geen) cooked in boiling water, drained and set aside to cool

		Side Dishes
50	g	Bean sprouts, raw
50	g	Bean sprouts, blanched
100	g	Yard long beans, finely sliced and blanched	Dwarf or French beans
100	g	Yard long beans, raw, cut into 5cm lengths	Dwarf or French beans
100	g	White cabbage, shredded	Pointed cabbage
100	g	Pickled cabbage, finely sliced
5-10	whole	Small dried chillies, fried in a minimal quantity of oil

Fish

1. Put the water and salt in a saucepan and bring to boil.

2. Boil the whole fish and the Chinese key until the fish is cooked – about 15-20 minutes.

3. Take the fish out and allow to cool. Don’t throw away the water – this is now your fish stock.

4. Whilst the fish is cooling, make your curry paste.

Curry paste

For the authentic taste of this curry it’s necessary to use a stone pestle and mortar, although it’s more time-consuming.

1. Add the ingredients one at a time, in the order given above, to the pestle and mortar and grind to a smooth paste.

If you do use a food processor, simply blend all the ingredients together to make a smooth paste.

Sauce

1. Remove the Chinese key from the fish stock. Take this, and the other 50g of Chinese key, and add to the pestle and mortar in which you have made the curry paste. Grind all together to a smooth paste.

2. Skin the fish and remove the flesh. Discard skin, head, tail and bones. Add the fish to the mortar and grind with the pestle to a smooth paste.

3. In a saucepan heat the oil until smoke rises from the surface.

4. Take the curry-plus-fish paste from the mortar and fry, stirring until the full aroma of the curry is released. (If at any time the curry seems dry or about to burn, add a little coconut cream.)

5. Add the coconut cream, a little bit at a time, and bring to the boil.

6. Add all the stock, which you set aside before, and water, and bring back to the boil.

7. Add fish sauce to taste. Remove from heat.

Noodles and Side Dishes

1. To serve, arrange the cold noodles on a plate and pour the sauce over them.

2. Set out the vegetable side dishes in little plates for people to garnish their noodles according to taste.

SERVES 4

Spicy And Sour Soup
ต้มยำ
Tom Yam

		Traditional Recipe	Alternatives

600	ml	Water	Clear chicken stock, fish stock
¼	tsp	Salt
½	medium	Onion, sliced into 1cm widths
1	stalk	Fresh lemon grass, crushed and cut in 5cm lengths
3	slices	Fresh galangal, sliced about 2mm thick
200	g	Chicken, sliced or Raw whole shelled king prawns or seafood or Fish: red or white snapper (pla krapong) or mudfish (pla chon), with head, tail and skin	Tofu or any white mushrooms including white oyster mushrooms or Firm-fleshed fish such as tuna, marlin, mackerel, monkfish or swordfish
5		Straw mushrooms, cut in half	Baby button mushrooms
1	medium	Tomato, cut into four segments
3	small	Fresh green chillies, crushed
1		Fresh kaffir lime leaf, torn roughly into quarters
2	tbsp	Fish sauce	Light soy sauce
2	tbsp	Lime juice	Lemon juice
1	stalk	Fresh coriander, picked leaves, to garnish

Preparing the fish

If you are using chicken, prawns, tofu or mushrooms then these need no special preparation and you can go straight to the main instructions for making the soup, below.

If you are using any kind of fish then prepare the fish first as described below:

For all kinds of fish
Gut, clean and scale the fish but do not remove the skin, head, tail or fins.

Mudfish (pla chon) and mackerel – long thin fish
Cut off the head then cut the rest of the fish into 1cm slices, each slice being cut right through including skin and bones, like cutting a loaf of bread, the last slice being about 4cm wide plus the whole tail. Head, tail and all slices go into the dish.

Red or white snapper (pla krapong) – wide and fairly flat fish
Remove head and tail and fillet the fish. Boil the head, tail and bones in 500ml of water for 20 minutes to make a fish stock. (If you have bought filleted fish and have nothing to make the stock then just use water.) Slice the fillets at 0.5cm intervals with your knife held on a slant at 45 degrees to the chopping board, the back of the knife leaning towards you, so that in cross-section your slices look like this:

Make sure you keep the skin on!

Tuna, marlin or swordfish – firm-fleshed fish normally sold as steaks
Slice into pieces about 0.5cm wide and not more than about 5cm long. Use water if you have no fish stock.

Making the soup

1. In a saucepan, bring water and salt to the boil.

2. Throw in the onion, lemon grass and galangal. Boil until the full aroma of the ingredients is released.

3. * If using chicken, add this now and boil until cooked.

4. Add the straw mushrooms, tomato and chilli.

5. * If using fish, seafood, tofu or mushrooms, add these at the same time as the straw mushrooms and tomato and boil until cooked.

6. Add the kaffir lime leaf, fish sauce and lime juice to taste.

7. Ladle into a bowl, garnish with coriander and serve.

SERVES 2

Traditional Recipe

Alternatives

Fish

Salt

Mackerel or white flaky-fleshed fish such as cod or haddock, whole or fillets

Curry paste

Omit if vegetarian

Sauce

Noodles

Side Dishes

Fish

Traditional Recipe

Alternatives