This tangy hot, sweet, sauce is common in Thai restaurants so I had to try to reverse engineer it. Then I met Leela Punyaratabandhu, bought her book Simple Thai Food, and there it is on page 187! Nailed it!
Leela says Nam Jim Kai means "dipping sauce for chicken". That may have been the original plan, but it’s also great as a dipping sauce for egg rolls, rangoons, fried calamari, or anything fried, for sprinkling on meats, grilled salmon, smoked eggs, or drizzled on grilled duck, chicken wings, in lettuce wraps, or anywhere you feel the need for sweet heat. Sometimes I make a deli-type coleslaw but I omit the sugar, grate some ginger in it, and sprinkle this sauce on it. All by itself: WOW. Pile the slaw on pulled pork: OMG.
Restaurants use red Thai red chiles (a.k.a. bird chiles), which are hard to find and hard to eat. They are definitely three alarm, 50,000 to 100,000 Scoville units, almost as hot as habaneros and much hotter than jalapenos. For this recipe I have substituted red jalapenos which are more in line with my capacity, and easier to find. I have even made it with green jalapenos. The green sauce is milder, has a very different flavor profile, and because green peppers have more pectin, it is thicker. I love the green version as a mix-in for egg salad and tuna salad and on hot dogs.
How hot is it? You want to make it hotter than you think you’ll like it because cooking mellows it and after a day in the fridge it loses a bit of its bite. Also, putting it on food tempers it, especially fatty foods. You can control the heat by the type of peppers you use, how many you use, and how many of the ribs you leave in the peppers, for that is where most of the heat hides, not in the seeds. Most store-bought versions of this sauce are loaded with seeds, but I strongly recommend you remove them when you make it. They never soften and just stick in your teeth. The flavor is in the flesh and the heat is in the ribs, so seeds are only a hindrance.
Makes. About 2 cups
Takes. 30 minutes
Ingredients
3 or 4 large fresh red jalapeno peppers
3 medium sized cloves garlic
1 cup water
1/2 cup rice vinegar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
3/4 cup sugar
About the peppers. The heat of the final sauce will depend on the heat and size of the peppers you use and how much of the ribs you leave in. Most of the heat is in the ribs, not the flesh or the seeds. If you are skittish, you might remove the ribs or use fewer peppers. If you wish, you can use serranos, or cayennes, or other peppers, just beware that some are hotter than others and this sauce is not meant to be 3 alarm. I made a batch with habaneros once and it was delicious, but really hard for me to handle.
About the vinegar. Rice vinegar is the same thing as rice wine vinegar. It is less acidic and less harsh than distilled white vinegar or cider vinegar. I prefer the taste. It comes as seasoned or unseasoned. Seasoned is slightly sweetened, sometimes salted, not so much that it matters in this recipe. Either one will do. If you don’t want to buy rice vinegar, you can use white vinegar or cider vinegar, but increase the water content by about 4 tablespoons since they are stronger.
About the cornstarch. This slightly thickens the sauce but also keeps it from separating.
Method
1) Prep. Remove the stems and seeds from the peppers. The seeds never soften and just stick in your teeth. Get ‘em all out. Chop it into large chunks. Peel and chop the garlic into quarters. In a food processor or blender, whir the peppers, garlic, water, vinegar, and corn starch. Leave it a little chunky so there are some pretty red flecks floating around.
2) Simmer. Pour the blend into a saucepan, bring up to a simmer, add the sugar, stir until it is incorporated, simmer for 5 minutes, and turn off the heat. The simmering pasteurizes it by killing any bacteria on the ingredients. Don’t let it bubble more than a gentle simmer or the sugar can foam up, overflow, and burn on the sides of the pot.
3) Taste the sauce after it has simmered. Then, if you wish, you can then add more minced peppers, sugar, or vinegar to your taste. Then simmer a bit longer to kill any bacteria.
4) Age a day. Pour into a very clean jar or if you have a thin neck bottle that will work fine. The bottles that rice vinegar comes in are perfect. It will keep forever in the fridge although it may lose some of its kick and the natural pectins will make it thicker. Although the cornstarch keeps the chile bits floating magically. I think it is best after. A day of aging. Shake before using.
Leela says Nam Jim Kai means "dipping sauce for chicken". That may have been the original plan, but it’s also great as a dipping sauce for egg rolls, rangoons, fried calamari, or anything fried, for sprinkling on meats, grilled salmon, smoked eggs, or drizzled on grilled duck, chicken wings, in lettuce wraps, or anywhere you feel the need for sweet heat. Sometimes I make a deli-type coleslaw but I omit the sugar, grate some ginger in it, and sprinkle this sauce on it. All by itself: WOW. Pile the slaw on pulled pork: OMG.
Restaurants use red Thai red chiles (a.k.a. bird chiles), which are hard to find and hard to eat. They are definitely three alarm, 50,000 to 100,000 Scoville units, almost as hot as habaneros and much hotter than jalapenos. For this recipe I have substituted red jalapenos which are more in line with my capacity, and easier to find. I have even made it with green jalapenos. The green sauce is milder, has a very different flavor profile, and because green peppers have more pectin, it is thicker. I love the green version as a mix-in for egg salad and tuna salad and on hot dogs.
How hot is it? You want to make it hotter than you think you’ll like it because cooking mellows it and after a day in the fridge it loses a bit of its bite. Also, putting it on food tempers it, especially fatty foods. You can control the heat by the type of peppers you use, how many you use, and how many of the ribs you leave in the peppers, for that is where most of the heat hides, not in the seeds. Most store-bought versions of this sauce are loaded with seeds, but I strongly recommend you remove them when you make it. They never soften and just stick in your teeth. The flavor is in the flesh and the heat is in the ribs, so seeds are only a hindrance.
Makes. About 2 cups
Takes. 30 minutes
Ingredients
3 or 4 large fresh red jalapeno peppers
3 medium sized cloves garlic
1 cup water
1/2 cup rice vinegar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
3/4 cup sugar
About the peppers. The heat of the final sauce will depend on the heat and size of the peppers you use and how much of the ribs you leave in. Most of the heat is in the ribs, not the flesh or the seeds. If you are skittish, you might remove the ribs or use fewer peppers. If you wish, you can use serranos, or cayennes, or other peppers, just beware that some are hotter than others and this sauce is not meant to be 3 alarm. I made a batch with habaneros once and it was delicious, but really hard for me to handle.
About the vinegar. Rice vinegar is the same thing as rice wine vinegar. It is less acidic and less harsh than distilled white vinegar or cider vinegar. I prefer the taste. It comes as seasoned or unseasoned. Seasoned is slightly sweetened, sometimes salted, not so much that it matters in this recipe. Either one will do. If you don’t want to buy rice vinegar, you can use white vinegar or cider vinegar, but increase the water content by about 4 tablespoons since they are stronger.
About the cornstarch. This slightly thickens the sauce but also keeps it from separating.
Method
1) Prep. Remove the stems and seeds from the peppers. The seeds never soften and just stick in your teeth. Get ‘em all out. Chop it into large chunks. Peel and chop the garlic into quarters. In a food processor or blender, whir the peppers, garlic, water, vinegar, and corn starch. Leave it a little chunky so there are some pretty red flecks floating around.
2) Simmer. Pour the blend into a saucepan, bring up to a simmer, add the sugar, stir until it is incorporated, simmer for 5 minutes, and turn off the heat. The simmering pasteurizes it by killing any bacteria on the ingredients. Don’t let it bubble more than a gentle simmer or the sugar can foam up, overflow, and burn on the sides of the pot.
3) Taste the sauce after it has simmered. Then, if you wish, you can then add more minced peppers, sugar, or vinegar to your taste. Then simmer a bit longer to kill any bacteria.
4) Age a day. Pour into a very clean jar or if you have a thin neck bottle that will work fine. The bottles that rice vinegar comes in are perfect. It will keep forever in the fridge although it may lose some of its kick and the natural pectins will make it thicker. Although the cornstarch keeps the chile bits floating magically. I think it is best after. A day of aging. Shake before using.
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