Last time I wrote I gave you two recipes with a regional twist. This week I thought I would keep the same concept of introducing you to the same cooking techniques but give you the regional variations. The first recipe uses both the boiling and grilling techniques. The recipe goes back hundreds of years and the use of the bitter leaves and flowers of the Sadao Plant is certainly an acquired taste.

   This dish is called Goong or Pla Duk Nam Pla Wan. Kung is prawn and Pla Duk is catfish. Nam Pla Wan literally means sweet fish sauce. It is made of palm sugar, fish sauce and tamarind pulp juice boiled down to a syrup like sauce. The sweet and salty and sour taste of the sauce helps to tone down the very bitter taste of the Sadao. Some Thais do not like Sadao due to its bitterness, coriander stalks and leaves are used instead. Personally I like bitter vegetables and the combination of the Nam Pla Wan, the grilled catfish or prawn together with the bitter Sadao give you palate a very interesting taste and texture sensation.

Accompanying vegetables:
Coriander stems and leaves
Blanched Sadao leaves and unopened blossom
Small bitter melons, cut in half, seeded and blanched
Directions:
1. Grilled the skewered catfish or prawn until just done over charcoal, medium heat.
2. Put the fish sauce, tamarind juice and sugar in a pot and bring to boil and simmer until a light syrup is achieved. Taste it. It should have a balanced taste of sweetness, sourness which is not too sharp and saltiness and quite fragrant.
3. To serve this dish, spoon the sauce into a small bowl and sprinkled over the top with some crispy fried shallots and garlic. Place the grilled catfish or prawns together with the accompanying vegetables on a platter. Put extra amount of crispy fried shallots and garlic in individual bowls. This dish has to be eaten with rice.


Tips:
a. To eat this dish requires you to take a small amount of catfish meat or prawn and put in on a small mount of rice. Then pick you vegetables be it Sadao or coriander break it up to bite size pieces and pile it on the fish or prawn. Spoon a small or large amount of sauce over the whole pile and sprinkle the top with crispy fried shallots and garlic and optional crispy fried dry chili peppers. Gather the whole pile up into your spoon with some rice and put it in your mouth and chew. My apologies for the long-winded description but you need to know how to eat this and plan on making your pile fairly small.
b. When grilling the prawns, grill it with the shell side down. You do not have to turn the prawns over to cook it through. The flesh in the center should still be slightly pink. In this way the prawn will not be tough and chewy.
c. Sadao is an evergreen tree whose leave tips and unopened blossom are used specifically for this dish. It is also a mild laxative and aids you digestive system.

Directions:
1. In a pestle and mortar, pound to a rough paste the shallots, garlic and Thai chili peppers.
2. Put a pot on the fire and add the paste and cook until fragrant. If it starts to burn, add a little of water to give it moisture. Cook until very fragrant but not burnt.
3. Add a little more water about half a cup and bring to boil. Add the fish pieces and kaffir lime leaves and cook until fish almost done.
4. Add the shredded papaya meat and stir. Add the rest of the water and bring to boil.
5. Once boiling, season the soup with fish sauce, Golden Mountain sauce and Pla Rah. Taste it. It should taste spicy, salty with sweetness from the vegetables. Adjust the seasoning to your liking and add the rest if the vegetables. Stir to mix everything in the soup and take off heat. In Isan they eat the soup with sticky rice which they ball it up in their hands and dip it into the soup and using a spoon the take up the fish and vegetable, put everything on their plate and continue eating with the sticky rice and their hands.

Tips:
a. Pla Rah is a very smelly fermented fish juice widely used in Isan cooking. It is indeed an acquired taste and should you elect not to use it just add more fish sauce and golden mountain sauce with be sufficient.
b. Raw papaya may be difficult to find in your part of the world shredded cabbage or some type of gourd would be a good substitute.
c. Golden Mountain seasoning sauce is the Thai version of the Maggie sauce from Switzerland.
d. If you want to serve this soup as a soup course, you will need to reduce the amount of chili peppers used in the paste and sliced up considerably.