Comments on: Thai Chili Paste (Chili Jam) - Nam Prik Pao

By: Pailin Chongchitnant

Pailin Chongchitnant — Wed, 14 May 2025 19:02:34 +0000

In reply to Adrian Clegg. Unfortunately no, as those red/yellow/green pastes are curry pastes, whereas what you need it "chili paste". However, if you use red curry paste in a stir fry, it'll still be tasty, but it'll taste very different from what cashew chicken is supposed to taste like. Can give it a try anyway!

By: Adrian Clegg

Adrian Clegg — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 10:49:16 +0000

I could not find Thai Curry Paste anywhere, but I did find something called Thai Red Paste, .......along with Thai Yellow Paste and Thai Green paste.
Can I use the Thai Red paste in place of the Thai Curry paste in the Cashew Chicken recipe??

By: Pailin Chongchitnant

Pailin Chongchitnant — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 23:15:47 +0000

In reply to Barbara Hallett Wegner. My apologies for the confusion. The tamarind called for is Thai tamarind paste which you can buy in a tub ready-to-use, or make it from pulp (recipe linked in the ingredient list). I used to use the term "tamarind juice" but this caused confusion so I have since changed to calling it tamarind paste, but some older recipes still use the same terminology.

By: Barbara Hallett Wegner

Barbara Hallett Wegner — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 00:45:11 +0000

Can I use tamarind paste and maybe dilute it. Or do you think it's best to buy the tamarind and soak them for the juice. If I can use the paste what would you recommend

By: Barbara

Barbara — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 16:29:38 +0000

First time I made a dish with the jam was your shrimp and veggie recipe, I purchased the jam online as I can not find it around here and it was $9.00 for a 4oz jar. So made it with your recipe. THIS IS GOLD!!
What other dishes can I make with this other than the ones you mention.
My family loved the shrimp dish so much they keep asking for me to make it any. So I made the jam now have a ton as I doubled the recipe.

By: Justin

Justin — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 21:25:15 +0000

Thai chili jam is by far my favorite thing to make in bulk. I like the dry roasting of herbals and have done something nearly identical to this but recently have been going the frying method:

70g dried long chilies (I can only get Indian where I am, once brought a bunch of fresh spur from Thailand and dried them on my balcony), stemmed and toasted most seeds removed, spice grinder when cooled
130g garlic sliced and fried til golden
170 g shallots sliced and friend til golden
5 stalks lemongrass sliced and fried til golden
50 g dried shrimp flash fried
Spice grind all fried stuff once cooled
40g shrimp paste
400 g palm sugar
.5 cup tamarind juice
.5 cup fish sauce
2 tsp toasted cumin
2 tsp toasted coriander
2 tsp white pepper
2 toasted star anise
Blitz the dry spices
Add everything to blender with 2 cups of water and go as long as you can
Add to 1cup oil in pot and simmer on low slightly covered for like an hour until super jammy with a little lair of oil on top!

The dried spices and lemongrass just give it a little something something

By: Justine Dadkhah

Justine Dadkhah — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 17:13:00 +0000

Can this be bought ready made from the store?

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 25 Feb 2024 09:12:40 +0000

I made this for my Tom Yum soup. Your instructions and video make it so easy. Thank you very much.

By: Pailin Chongchitnant

Pailin Chongchitnant — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 21:23:51 +0000

In reply to Dave S. Answered you on Patreon! :)

By: Dave S

Dave S — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 04:00:32 +0000

In reply to Poonam. Pai I made this tonight and just realized I left out the tamarind juice. Can this be added in after this is all done? What would you suggest?

By: Pailin Chongchitnant

Pailin Chongchitnant — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 00:51:28 +0000

In reply to William. Because the recipe in Sabai is a much bigger portion :) The amount is the same proportionally.

By: William

William — Sat, 21 Oct 2023 22:29:37 +0000

I have made this recipe several times, but notice that the Thai chili paste recipe in your recent book Sabai has increased the amount of fermented shrimp paste from 1/4 tsp to 1 tsp. Given the concentrated nature of this ingredient which do you recommend?

By: Jo Mercer

Jo Mercer — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 13:42:50 +0000

I used dried pasillo negro chiles (mild and already roasted)to great effect. I also substituted the Indian-style tamarind paste I had on hand, but only about a generous teaspoon plus 4 tablespoons of water.

I made thiis today to use in Pai's Tom Yum Pizza on Friday's Pizza Night!

By: Charles Pascual

Charles Pascual — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 17:21:43 +0000

I've made this twice now - the first time to use in one of your recipes & this second time because I came across a recipe on another site that calls for it, with the usual link to purchase the prepared product on Amazon (to which I said, "nah, I can make this"). My go-to Thai-Viet market carries only fresh chiles, so I use a mix of mild & fruity, Mexican chiles - guajillo, ancho, pasilla, Morita - I don't know whether this makes my Nam Prik Pao non-authentic, but it tastes good to me. As you suggested, I tried this as "jam" on toasted English muffins (crumpets to you outside the US) and became addicted - I finished off the first batch this way in a few days. I expect this current batch will also end up this way too, after I use what I need in my recipe tonight. Thanks, Pailin.

By: Pailin Chongchitnant

Pailin Chongchitnant — Sat, 21 Jan 2023 19:07:24 +0000

In reply to Václav Š.. You beat me to it, but 20g is exactly what you needed so good estimation!

By: Václav Š.

Václav Š. — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 10:55:09 +0000

In reply to Václav Š..

As I said, I could not wait to try. In the video it looks like a quarter cup, maybe more. I went ahead with a quarter cup or 20 grams of gochugaru and it turned out nice.

By: Václav Š.

Václav Š. — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 07:10:59 +0000

How much do the chillies amount to in terms of volume once ground up? I don't have whole chillies, but I want to try the recipe using gochugaru.
Thank you for your answer. I cannot wait to try your tom yum goong recipe.

By: Pailin Chongchitnant

Pailin Chongchitnant — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 00:08:23 +0000

In reply to Poonam. You can replace it with some bonito flakes, crush it up so it measures easily in a tablespoon, and omit the shrimp paste or use miso paste instead.