Description
Nam prik ong, a life-changing, spicy, sweet, sour pork and tomato Thai stir-fry, perfect for filling up your lettuce wraps, plus it’s authentic recipe from my Thai grandma’s kitchen!
Ingredients
- 3 shallots, diced, divided
- 12 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped, divided
- 2–5 dried Thai chilies, depending on spice preference (or you can leave them out and it’s still amazing)
- 3 tbsp. cooking oil
- 1 pound ground pork
- 2 c. baby tomatoes, quartered
- 2 tbsp. tamarind paste
- 1 tbsp. fish sauce, to taste
- 2 tbsp. brown sugar or palm sugar, to taste
- 2 tsp. Thai Shrimp Paste
(optional)
Instructions
- Soak the Thai chilies in warm water for at least 30 minutes to soften them up before their pounding.
- Add soaked Thai chilies, half of the shallots and half of the garlic to your mortar and pestle. Pound until smooth. *If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, you can use a food processor. It won’t have the same authentic flavor, but still be delicious!
- Add 3 tbsp. of cooking oil to a wok or large pan.
- Add the reserved garlic and shallots to the cold pan. Stir-fry until brown and crisp. Keep stirring it while it fries and once it starts to turn golden, turn off the pan and keep stirring. It can quickly go from brown to burnt if you don’t keep your eye on it.
- Remove the fried garlic and shallots and place in a small bowl, but keep the garlic and shallot infused oil in the pan.
- Now add the pounded chilies, garlic and shallots and stir-fry for a few minutes until fragrant.
- Then add ground pork and combine well with chilie mixture.
- When the pork has cooked a little, add the tomatoes.
- Crush the tomatoes with the back of your spatula to help them combine with the pork mixture.
- Stir until pork is cooked through and combined well with the tomatoes.
- Then add tamarind, fish sauce, sugar, shrimp paste, fried shallots and garlic, and mix it up. We like ours more sweet and sour with a slight salty taste.
- You can serve it with lettuce wraps, cabbage, green beans, pork skins, or if you want to make it more fusion, serve it with chips, crackers or pita bread!
Notes
It’s best to use sweet and sour baby tomatoes, but since I can’t find those in our grocery store, we just use regular baby tomatoes and add in tamarind paste to make it sour.
Dom’s grandma always puts Thai Shrimp Paste
in hers, but if you can’t find it, no worries! I still love it without it too.
If I’m making this for others who can’t handle the spicy heat, I fry the Thai dried chilies separately. Then whoever wants one can break it up and put in their own serving, or take little bites of it while eating their serving.
Check out the recipe video in my @thaifoodie Instagram Story Highlights under Thai Stir-frys!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Thai Food
- Method: Stir-Fry
- Cuisine: Thai
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2-3
Keywords: nam prik ong, thai stir-fry, thai lettuce wraps, lettuce wraps. thai recipe, thai pork recipe