Nam Prik Noom with Crisp Thai Vegetables

Fire in the pan, freshness on the table

Nam prik noom is a Northern Thai chili dip made with green peppers. The roasted peppers are roughly pounded with garlic and shallot; fish sauce adds a savory, salty depth, while lime juice brightens the dip. The texture is deliberately not completely smooth: pieces of pepper and shallot give you something to grip when you dip vegetables or sticky rice into it. The heat depends largely on the peppers. If you can find them, use long green prik noom peppers.

Roasting here is more than a way to cook the ingredients. The charred skin gives the dip a distinct smoky flavor, while the inside softens and becomes sweeter. Let the peppers blister well, but avoid letting the flesh turn black and bitter. A dry cast-iron pan works well; you can also use a hot oven grill. Not all the vegetables need to be cooked: raw cucumber, carrot and cabbage keep each bite fresh and crunchy. Briefly blanched green beans add a softer bite.

Long green peppers are not available everywhere. If you can’t find them, try a combination of mild green peppers and jalapeño, and start with less jalapeño if you’re not familiar with its heat. Small Thai bird’s-eye chilies are much hotter and are not a like-for-like substitute. Taste the dip after pounding and adjust with fish sauce for saltiness or lime juice for acidity; don’t add extra peppers right away, before the flavors have had a chance to combine. A mortar and pestle gives you the right coarse texture, but pound in small batches if your mortar is compact.

Serve the dip with vegetables and sticky rice as part of a meal with other dishes, or set everything out as a generous side dish to share. Sticky rice needs to soak for several hours before steaming, so plan ahead. The dip can be covered and stored in the refrigerator, and is best eaten within three days. Cool any leftover cooked rice quickly, refrigerate it within two hours, and later reheat it once until piping hot all the way through.