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Nam Phrik Ong

A Thai pork and tomato dip made with dried paprika chilies, shallots, garlic, shrimp paste, coriander, onion, oil, and minced pork.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Nam Phrik Ong

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the paste

  1. Pound together the peppers, shallots, and garlic.

  2. Add the shrimp paste and salt, and continue pounding the mixture.

Cook the chili pork

  1. Heat the oil in a pan.

  2. Add the pounded mixture.

  3. Stir in the coriander and onion.

  4. Cook until fragrant.

  5. Add the pork and stir it until it is cooked.

  6. Add some water if it gets dry.

  7. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  8. Add the tomatoes and stir them around until they are cooked.

Serve

  1. Serve with some vegetables for dipping such as lettuce wraps, cabbage, and/or green beans.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

536Calories
54 gProtein
28 gFat
18 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pork100g cooked242
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Shrimp100g cooked99
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Coriandernot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Garlic + coriandertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Dried paprika chile peppers
Provide heat and red color that give the paste its main flavor.
Shallots
Add sweetness and aromatic depth when pounded and cooked down.
Garlic cloves
Contribute pungent aroma that mellows and sweetens with cooking.
Shrimp paste
Adds deep savory, umami flavor to the paste.
Minced or ground pork
Supplies protein and fat that give the dip its rich, meaty body.
Small tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that soften into the sauce as they cook.

The step that matters

Cook the pounded paste in oil until fragrant. Frying the paste in oil releases fat-soluble aroma compounds from the chiles, shallots and garlic. Undercooked paste tastes raw and harsh, so cook until the aroma blooms before adding the pork.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, shallot, garlic, shrimp, coriander, onion, pork):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, shallot, garlic, shrimp, coriander, onion, pork. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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