Mieng Kham

I have a craving for Thai food of recent....this dish is also one of my favourites. I found a few versions of this delicious recipe from the internet and simplified it.  It was a hit with the boys!

Here is what I did:-

Prepared the following for the fillings:

40-50 wild beetle betel leaves (daun kadok) - I have lots in my backyard!

1/2 cup dried shrimps - toast for 10 minutes in the oven

1/2 cup peanuts - toast in oven, otherwise just buy from store, that's what I did:D

1 lime - choose the one with the thinest skin, i.e. the smoothest, cubed

1/4 cup shallots - peeled and roughly chopped

1/2 cup toasted coconut shreds (yes, I did this myself since I can't buy this anywhere)

1/4 cup ginger, skinned and cubed

1/4 cup bird's eyes chilies for those who want it spicy (I obmitted this)

The fillings all ready...

Now to prepare the sauce:-

Sauce ingrdients:

1 tsp shrimp paste

1 tbsp dried shrimps

1/2 tbsp galangal (blue ginger) thinly sliced

2 large shallots, sliced

1.5 tsp ginger, sliced

1.5 cup water

1 cup palm sugar (I used the whole piece, about 150g)

1 tsbp fish sauce

1/4 cup toasted coconut (toast this together with the above)

Salt to taste

Pound shallots, ginger and galangal till fine, add shrimps and continue pounding till fine. Put everything in a sauce pan with the 1.5 cup water and bring to boil. Add palm sugar and fish sauce.  Simmer till the sauce thickens, stirring ocassionally. Add salt to taste. Sauce should reduced to about 1 cup or less.

The sauce...fragrant and sticky and yummy!

The whole lot, all ready to be enjoyed!

The way to eat this dish is to take a leaf and fold it to make a cone, fill with a piece of each of the prepare filling, sprinkle some toasted coconut and scoop a teaspoon of the sauce on it and popped the whole thing into your mouth.  Mmmmm....delicious! Bursting with flavours, sweet, sour, spicy, crunching, chewy all in a mouthful!

Now pop that into your mouth and taste the flavours!