Wikipedia writes ‘Nam jim (น้ำจิ้ม) is Thai for “dipping sauce”. It can refer to a wide variety of dipping sauces in Thai cuisine, with many of them being a combination of salty, sweet, spicy and sour’.

I use this dressing in my PK’s Thai Beef Salad.

I use a blender (don’t tell anyone please) instead of a mortar and pestle because I am lazy. You will get a more visually appealing result if you use the former, though I hope the taste is similar. I primarily use this dressing on my Thai Beef Salads and they have a lot going on visually anyway.

Edit: Last time I made this dressing I used a mortar and pestle and the results were worth it 🙂

If you haven’t already, please go and have a read of my post PK’s Curry Paste Kit. It will show you just how off the charts bonkers I am about using whole spices and the freshest ingredients when making your own pastes etc. Actually maybe give that post a miss ;).

STEPS:

1. Gather the ingredients
2. Mix in the wet blender
3. Serving

You will need:

• Ingredients:
  • 1 tsp powdered kashmiri chili
  • 5 coriander roots (cilantro)
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 2.5cm piece fresh ginger root
  • 3 Tbsp fish sauce
  • 3 Tbsp lime juice
  • 1 Tbsp palm sugar
• Equipment
  • a chopping board
  • a long sharp knife
  • a tablespoon
  • a teaspoon
  • a medium sized bowl
  • a wet blender with a small bowl
  • a dry mill (optional)
  • a small serving bowl for the middle of the table

Gather the ingredients

Steps:

1. Dry mill your whole kashmiri chilis to get 1 tsb. Mostly I use store bought powder though.
2. Wash the 5 coriander roots thoroughly if you have just harvested them. I have a stash in the freezer though of roots retained after using the rest of the plant. See my post Herbs – Coriander (Coriandrum sativum).
3. Peel and rough chop the 3 garlic cloves.
4. Peel and rough chop the 2.5cm ginger root.
5. Bring the 3 Tbsp fish sauce, 3 Tbsp lime juice and 1 Tbsp palm sugar together.

Mix in the wet blender

Steps:

1. Pop everything into your wet blender and pulse till you get the look you are after.
2. Have a taste and add a bit more of anything you think is under represented. For example I normally add a bit more fish sauce for the saltiness factor.

Serving

Pop the lot in a serving bowl. I do this so that every one can build their own Thai salad at dinner. I haven’t tried storing this in the fridge for very long but the salt content of the fish sauce should let it keep for a while. You might just want to freshen up the citrus flavour by adding a bit of lime or lemon juice.

I would love to hear about your favourite Thai salad dressing or dipping sauce.

Enjoy,

PK