Leela Punyaratabandhu's Shrimp-Coconut Relish (Lon Kung Mu Sap) with Crudités

Though the word lon is translated as ‘relish,’ writes Leela Punyaratabandhu, it is more of a dip for crudités rather than a condiment. Punyaratabandu is the author of Simple Thai Food, from which her recipe is adapted. We’re huge fans of the 2014 book, which we reviewed in November 2020.

[Read our review of ‘Simple Thai Food’ by Leela Punyaratabandhu]

“Most people who did not grow up in a Thai household or live with Thai people are unfamiliar with the various coconut milk-based relishes called lon,” she explains in the headnote. Naturally, I needed to know more — and found what I was looking for on Punyaratabandhu’s excellent blog, She Simmers. Though when we visited she hadn’t posted a story in a couple years, the most recent was a 2018 post about Thai relishes — nam phrik — in general. “These dishes form the most significant segment of Thai cuisine, but they’re the least understood and the least appreciated,” she wrote. In it, she refers to this recipe, which she calls a great one “or those beginning to get into the world of Thai nam phrik.” Diving into it was nothing short of thrilling.

The technique was completely unfamiliar to me, and I didn’t know what to expect: Raw pork and shrimp are ground together, then cooked in coconut milk and seasoned with palm sugar, salt, tamarind, shallot and lemongrass and garnished with a chiffonnade of makrut lime leaves (Punyaratabandhu calls them “optional” in her cookbook, but we’d hate to do without them. The result was stunning: deeply umamiful, intense, tangy, fragrant, a little sweet — everything at once. Eaten with a bit of rice along with raw vegetable, as Punyaratabandu suggests in her headnote, it was absolutely thrilling.

Serves 4.

Ingredients

1 stalk lemongrass

4 ounces fatty pork cut, such as boneless shoulder (pork butt)

8 ounces shrimp in the shell, peeled and deveined

1 cup coconut milk

3 tablespoons packed grated palm sugar or light brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons tamarind pulp

1 large shallot, about 1 ounce, thinly sliced lengthwise

1 fresh red or green Thai long chile, sliced crosswise 1/2 inch thick

2 fresh makrut lime leaves, central vein cut out and sliced lengthwise into very thin strips

Assorted crunchy and mild-flavored raw vegetables (such as cucumber, zucchini and carrot slices; 1-inch-long green bean and celery pieces; thin green cabbage and iceberg lettuce wedges; 2-inch napa cabbage pieces; quartered Thai round eggplants; halved or quartered radishes; cauliflower florets; small red or yellow bell pepper squares)

Instructions

1. Trim off and discard the leafy parts of the lemongrass stalk, remove the tough outer leaves of the bulb portion until the smooth, pale green core is exposed, and trim off the root end. Working from the root end, cut the bulb crosswise into paper-thin slices, stopping once you reach the point where the purple rings disappear. Set aside.

2. Cut the pork into small pieces, roughly the size of the shrimp. Put the shrimp and pork in a food processor and pulse to grind coarsely. (Alternatively, chop the shrimp and pork on a sturdy cutting board with a cleaver or chef knife.)

3. In a 2-quart saucepan, combine the coconut milk and the shrimp-pork mixture over medium-high heat. Using a wooden spoon, stir and cook the shrimp-pork mixture, breaking it up with the spoon into a fine mince as you go, until the meat mixture is cooked, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the palm sugar, salt, tamarind and shallot, turn down the heat to medium, and continue to cook, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Taste for seasoning and correct as needed. The mixture should be predominantly sweet-and-sour first, then salty. Keep in mind that it will be eaten with mild-flavored vegetables and bland rice and season accordingly.

4. Add the lemongrass and chile and continue to cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 2 to 3 minutes, to blend all the flavors. Remove from the heat, transfer to a serving bowl and sprinkle the lime leaves on top. Let cool.

5. While the dish cools, prepare the raw vegetables, cutting them into roughly bite-size pieces as directed. Arrange the crudités on a large serving platter, and put the bowl of lon in the middle. Serve the lon at room temperature or slightly warmer.