Fish Sauce with Hot Chilies
Prik Nam Blah
Fish sauce infused with sliced hot chili, the everyday Thai table condiment
- Prep
- 2 min
- Serves
- 4
- Heat
- very hot
This is about as basic and essential as a Thai condiment gets — just fish sauce and sliced hot chili, left to sit for an hour so the two flavors merge. It sits on Thai dining tables the way ketchup or mustard might sit on a western one, ready to spoon over rice or whatever dish needs an extra hit of salt and heat. The chilies used here are genuinely hot regardless of whether they're green or red, so the choice of color is really just about how the finished jar looks rather than how spicy it turns out.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup Fish sauce (good quality)
- 5-6 Thai hot chilies (sliced into 1/8 to 1/4 inch rounds)
Directions
- Pour the fish sauce into a glass container with a lid.
- Slice the chilies straight across into 1/8 to 1/4 inch rounds and add to the fish sauce.
- Stir and let sit for about an hour so the flavors combine.
- Serve at room temperature. Keeps in the refrigerator for several days in a tightly sealed jar.
Notes
Slice the chilies straight across into thin rounds rather than lengthwise — this exposes more of the seeds and interior to the fish sauce, letting the heat infuse faster.
Substitutions
A mix of green and red chilies makes for an especially attractive jar, though either color alone works just as well — both are genuinely hot regardless of color.