Recipe - Chili And Tomato Dip (Nam Prik Num)

Stephen Ceideburg
2 lg Banana chilies or New
Mexican or yellow wax hot
chilies
3 lg Shallots, peeled and halved
5 Cloves garlic, peeled
2 Mediumsized ripe tomatoes
(One half lb.)
1 tablespoon Chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoon Fish sauce
1 tablespoon Fresh lime juice

Serve as a dip with raw vegetables or as a condiment.
If the chilies are very hot, you may want to seed
them. Dryfrying, a method of roasting, is simply
frying without fat.

Heat a large, heavy skillet over high heat. Add whole
chilies and dryfry for about 4 minutes, pressing down
with a wooden spoon and turning occasionally. Add
shallots and garlic to the skillet and continue to
dryfry, turning occasionally. for about 5 minutes, or
until the chili skins are blackened. Transfer the
mixture to a bowl and cool. Add tomatoes to the
skillet and dryfry for about 5 minutes, turning
occasionally, or until the skins are blackened. Let
cool.

Remove stems from the chilies and cut in half
lengthwise. (Do not remove skins.) Remove seeds if you
prefer less heat. Core the tomatoes and cut into
quarters. (Do not remove skins.) Place chilies,
tomatoes, shallots and garlic in a food processor and,
pulsing, process until the mixture is coarsely chopped
and salsalike in texture (not pureed). Alternatively,
chop vegetables finely with a knife. Transfer the
mixture to a small bowl and stir in cilantro, fish
sauce and lime juice. (The dip can be prepared up to 3
days ahead and stored, covered, in the refrigerator.)

Makes 1 One fourth cups.

7 CALORIES PER TABLESPOON: 0 G PROTEIN, 0 G FAT, 2 G
CARBOHYDRATE; 12 MG SODIUM; 0 MG CHOLESTEROL.

From "Eating Well", Jan/Feb, 1992.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini