Kanom Jeen Nam Ya Pla

I was at a Thai restaurant when I saw this weird looking dish on the table behind me. I checked the menu and learned that the dish was called Kanom Jeen Nam Ya Pla. The name is quite a mouthful! Basically, it is a southern Thai cuisine of rice noodles served with a broth of rich creamy fish curry. In Malaysia, we have something quite similar called Thai Laksa though it doesn't taste quite as delish or look half as fancy as this.

Kanom Jeen means rice noodles which are made from rice which has first been fermented for three days, boiled, and then made into noodles by pressing the resulting dough through a sieve into boiling water.

Nam ya pla means fish curry sauce. This rich coconut milk based curry is divine!

It was possibly the best Thai Laksa I've ever tasted!  As soon as I got home, I googled the recipe and made the curry the following day. Instead of noodles, I served mine with rice and it was lipsmackin' good!

Here's the recipe to share. Good Luck on finding some of the ingredients!

CURRY PASTE
Ingredients
8 dried chillies
8 fresh red chillies
1/2 cup sliced lemon grass
2 tbsps sliced galangal
2 tbsps sliced turmeric
1/3 cup garlic
1/3 cup shallots
White peppercorns
1 tsp salt
1 tsp shrimp paste

Method
1) Put all of the ingredients in a food processor and grind them to a fine paste.

NAM YA PLA
Ingredients
4 cups coconut milk
4 cups cooked fish meat
1/3 cup of the above curry paste or store-bought Thai yellow curry paste.
4-6 cups water
2 tsp salt
1-2 tbsps brown sugar
1/4- 1/2 cup of tamarind juice depending on your preference of sourness
2 tbsps fish sauce
2-3 Kaffir lime leaves

Method
1) Heat about half a cup of coconut milk in a pot. Add the curry paste. Simmer the curry paste mixture for 2 -3 minutes to ensure  all the spices are cooked and the aroma and flavours infused into the mixture.
2) Add 3 cups of coconut milk and 3 cups of water together with the tamarind juice to the mixture  until it boils, then add the salt and torn kaffir lime leaves.
3) Add the fish sauce and sugar. Add this point, taste the sauce. If required, add more tamarind juice depending on how sour you want it.
4) Add the remaining 1/2 cup of coconut milk to the sauce. Stir  and turn off the heat once it starts to boil.
5) Serve with rice.

recipe adapted from http://highheelgourmet.com/tag/galangal