Thailand's cuisine spans many kinds of dishes, among them kaeng (curries and soups), boiled and steamed dishes, stir-fries, deep-fried dishes and more. Some go together well to form pairs. Kaeng khio waan (a spicy, coconut cream-based curry) with phat phak khana kap pla khem (Chinese broccoli stir-fried with salted fish), kaeng som phak boong kap khai jio (a sweet-sour-spicy, soup-like curry together with omelette), kaeng pa pla sai (a very spicy fish curry made without coconut cream) with pla chon daed dio thawt (deep-fried semi-dried snakehead fish), kaeng lueang pla kraphong (a fiery Southern variant of kaeng som made with sea bass) with moo waan (sugar-sweetened pork), and kaeng lieng nam tao (a vegetable soup containing gourds) with dried mussels fried with sugar and nam pla to make them sweet and salty, are just a few from an endless list of Thai dishes that pair up nicely.
SOUR NOTE: Above, a whole 'makawk', together with some that has been sliced for use, below.
There is one other class of Thai dishes, and it is one that I'd like to focus on today — the sour-hot salad-like ones called yam. These can work well as a third dish together with some of the pairings mentioned above.
Although Thai food is as ancient as the culture itself, there is little documentation of it, and we do not know much about its history. Thailand's historical records ignore this central part of the culture in favour of material concerned with governance and war.
Some of the first clear descriptions of Thai food appear in poetry written during the reign of King Rama II, more than 180 years ago. They mention about 15 kinds of food, of which two are yam dishes: phala nuea (a grilled beef yam) and the prawn yam called saeng wa. These references show that yam dishes were important parts of the diet at the time, and that they have a long history.
By the time that cookbooks began to proliferate in Thailand around 50-60 years ago, yam dishes were in the front rank of recipes offered, and included many rarely seen today. One of these is yam tap moo kap krathawn, made by cutting boiled pork liver into pieces and mixing it with slices of krathawn (sontol, a fruit with sweet-sour, somewhat astringent pulp) with the skin left on and toasted peanuts, adding a sauce made from palm sugar, nam pla and chillies, then pouring coconut cream that had been simmered until thick, and tossing until mixed.
Another long-gone dish is yam maeng daa thalay kap luk madan (a yam made from the eggs of the horseshoe crab and the sour green fruit called madan in Thai). The horseshoe crab eggs are steamed until cooked, then mixed with sliced madan, pounded dried shrimp, toasted peanuts, sliced shallots, and a sauce made from nam pla, sugar, chopped bird's eye chillies, and chopped fresh coriander.
One more recipe for a vanished dish is one for yam man thate (a red, potato-like tuber). The man thate is cut into long pieces and deep-fried, as in making French fries. and mixed together with toasted peanuts, chillies (phrik chee faa) cut lengthwise, and fresh coriander, then tossed with a mixture of nam pla, lime juice and sugar.
These are just a couple of examples of yam dishes that were eaten in the past. Today the repertoire contains many more. Among the favourites are yam makhuea yao phao kap kung haeng (made with grilled long green eggplant, or aubergine, and dried shrimp), yam kunchieng (made with a sweet Chinese sausage), yam moo yaw (with a fine-textured, mild pork sausage as the main ingredient), yam taeng raan (made with a big, cucumber-like vegetable), yam hua plee (with with banana flower), yam nang moo (with pork skin), yam pla salit yang kap mamuang dip (with grilled pieces of a freshwater fish and unripe mango), yam nuea yang (with grilled beef), yam thua phlu (with wing beans), yam som o (with pomelo), and yam yawt krathin (with a herb that has mimosa-like leaves).
These are just a few of the yam dishes. They seem simple but there are aspects of them that make them distinct from other kinds of foods, and they demand special knowledge on the part of the cook who prepares them. These include a deep familiarity with the ingredients (and changes they experience with the shifting seasons), since success in making a yam depends on flawless instincts in combining and balancing.
The most important part of a yam is not the meat or vegetables that it contains, but the sauce, which gives the dish its character. It must combine nam pla, sugar, lime juice and chillies — saltiness, sweetness, sourness and heat. All are absolute requirements; none of them can be missing.
After the sauce, the hierarchy of elements in the dish's structure according to importance is the meat, the vegetables, the sour fruit and the ingredient, perhaps thick coconut cream or peanuts, that gives some yam dishes a rich, nutty flavour. These ingredients complement and highlight each other. For example, meats like pork, chicken or fresh shrimp do not naturally have very strong flavours, and bland vegetables like eggplant, taeng raan, and wing beans need saltiness that can come from dried shrimp or fish. Sour fruits bring out all of the component flavours, but some of these fruits, like fresh limes, madan, taling pling, star fruit, pomelo or certain local types of sour orange, have distinctive tastes of their own. They can be used to adjust the sourness of the lime juice in the sauce.
Once a cook thoroughly understands the basic structure of the dish in these terms, making it is not difficult. Preparation can be very challenging and a lot of fun if the raw ingredients are interesting and the fruit used is in season and has a special, characteristic sourness. The door is often for informed creativity.
Most local markets in the areas around Ayutthaya, Ang Thong, Lop Buri, Sing Buri and Uthai Thani have stalls offering dried, semi-dried and smoked fish. All are high-quality ingredients for these dishes.
Grilled smoked fish of the scaleless type, like pla kote, pla sawai, pla thaypho and pla nuea awn can be used to make many delectable dishes — tom yam pla krawp (a sour-hot soup made from crispy dried fish) and kaeng lieng (a vegetable soup with added fish), for example. During the monsoon a number of sour fruits come into season, among them madan, taling pling and makawk (similar in taste to madan but with harder pulp).
A yam of grilled, smoked fish with makawk is well worth anyone's attention. It is made by removing the fish meat from the bones. If there is a big, hard piece of fish it can be pounded into smaller ones. The makawk is cut into small pieces and mixed with shallots, pan-toasted peanuts, chopped bird's eye chillies, the saw-toothed, coriander scented herb called phak chee farang in Thai, and a sauce made from lime juice, nam pla, sugar and lime juice, although not too much of this last because the makawk is already very sour. After these ingredients have been mixed, taste and adjust according to preference, and then scatter mint leaves on top. You'll have a first-class yam pla yang rom khwan with makawk to set on the table, and will increase your personal repertoire of yam dishes by one classic.
Yam dishes are adaptable. All that is needed is a sharp instinct for what it takes to make a good one and access to some choice ingredients. Experimenting can produce marvels once this principle is in place. Take advantage of these last days of rain, stock up on available sour fruits, and give it a try. n
