Nam Phrik Pla Too (น้ำพริกปลาทู)

The Dip Where the Fish Goes In

น้ำพริกปลาทู is the nam phrik where the mackerel doesn't sit on the side — it goes into the mortar itself. Pla too, the short-bodied mackerel that is Thailand's cheap everyday fish, gets steamed, grilled or fried, boned, and pounded with roasted aromatics into a dip that is half dip and half fish. Kapook's pitch is the diet-friendly one: a protein-heavy chilli dip, hot and sour, eaten with raw or blanched vegetables, or over hot rice. And it has a cousin name — ป่นปลาทู (pon pla too), the pla-ra-rich version Wongnai calls increasingly hard to find in restaurants.

The craft is all in the roast. Kapook's plain version dry-roasts garlic, shallots and chillies in a hot pan until lightly charred before they reach the mortar — the char carries the whole dip. The more elaborate versions take it further: Wongnai's and LunnyToon's recipes grill everything over the fire and then peel the burnt skins off before pounding. TrueID scales up instead — 150 g of garlic and 150 g of shallots to 200 g of fish, a garlic-led batch meant to be eaten with hot rice or sticky rice.

Then there are the seasoning schools. The pla ra school runs from a single tablespoon (Wongnai's version) to a simmered ladleful (Kapook's pla ra version) to a full half cup in the pon pla too. The clean school — Kapook's plain version and LunnyToon's — seasons with nothing but fish sauce, lime and palm sugar. And the second-cook school: Kapook's dry-stir-fried version pounds everything fine and then fries the paste in the pan until it smells like the market.

The Recipe (home version, from Kapook)

The grilled-and-peeled version (Wongnai, and LunnyToon's near-twin): flesh of 2–3 fried mackerel, 2 banana chillies, 10 red jinda chillies, 2 red spur chillies, 5 garlic cloves, 3–6 shallots, 1 lime, ½ tbsp fish sauce, ¼–½ tbsp palm sugar, salt — aromatics charred and peeled first, 1 tbsp pla ra optional. The pla ra batch (TrueID): 200 g mackerel, 150 g garlic, 150 g shallots, 100 g chillies, 1½ tbsp pla ra, 1 tbsp fish sauce, 2½ tbsp lime juice. The dry-stir-fried version (Kapook): 9 grilled mackerel, 2 tbsp banana-leaf-grilled shrimp paste, roasted sliced lemongrass, grilled shallots, red chillies and garlic — pounded fine, then fried in the pan.

The Method

1. The fish. Grill (or steam) the mackerel, leave it to cool, then pick the flesh off the bones.
2. The char. Garlic, shallots and chillies dry-roasted in a hot pan until they smell toasty and char lightly at the edges.
3. The mortar. Aromatics in first, pounded coarse — then the mackerel flesh, pounded in after them.
4. The loosen. Boiled water stirred through until the dip loosens.
5. The season. Lime juice, fish sauce and palm sugar, pounded through. Taste, adjust, and serve with raw or blanched vegetables and hot rice.

Where Thai Sources Disagree

How Western Versions Get It Wrong

• The mackerel pâté treatment. Cream, lemon zest, blitzed smooth, served on toast. The real dip is pounded coarse with chillies, fish sauce and lime, and eaten with vegetables.
• Packet smoked mackerel. Pla too is fresh — steamed, grilled or fried on the day. Smoked fillets taste of kippers and take the whole dip with them.
• Serving the fish whole on the side. That is nam phrik kapi's arrangement. Here the fish goes into the mortar — it is the difference between the two dishes.
• Leaving out the char. The roasted garlic, shallot and chilli is the dip's whole aroma; a raw unroasted paste tastes flat by comparison.
• Making it mild. It is a chilli dip — five to ten bird's eyes in the plain version and three kinds of chilli in the fancy one. Deseeding the chillies removes the point.
• Blending it smooth. The dip is a coarse pound with visible flakes of fish. A food processor makes a smooth paste and kills the texture.

UK Ingredient Notes

• Pla too: fresh is rare in the UK; frozen short-bodied mackerel is standard at Thai grocers. UK mackerel is bigger and oilier — it works well; use a fillet-sized portion per person and adjust the seasoning up.
• Pla ra (fermented fish sauce): bottled, at Thai grocers — for the pla ra school versions.
• Bird's eye chillies, palm sugar, fish sauce: any supermarket or Thai grocer.
• Canned tuna in spring water: the sources' own shortcut works unchanged for the pon pla too version.
• Banana leaf (for the grilled-shrimp-paste dry-fried version): frozen at Thai grocers.

Sources

This recipe is translated from the following Thai-language sources. Where they disagree, we've said so.