Cooking in
New South Wales
Thai · Thailand
Kanom Jeen Nam Ya (Rice Noodles with Fish Curry Sauce)
Fresh rice vermicelli (kanom jeen — fermented, cooked, and coiled into mounds) served with a rich fish and krachai curry sauce — one of the oldest and most specifically Thai of all noodle preparations. Nam ya (the sauce) is built on a paste of krachai (fingerroot ginger), fish, and dried chillies with coconut milk, and represents the central Thai tradition of fish-based curry sauces that predate the red and green curry pastes as the primary curry preparations.
‹Swipe for the next dish›
Cook
I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
For the curry paste
150 g
krachai (fingerroot)
peeled and roughly chopped
6
dried red chillies
soaked and drained
1 tsp
salt
Your own market
300 g
white fish (sea bass or snapper) or tinned mackerel
steamed and finely flaked if using fresh
For the sauce
400 ml
full-fat coconut milk
uncracked
Origin · Sri Lankan coconut (Coconut Research Institute of Sri Lanka), Sri Lanka
2 tbsp
fish sauce
Your own market
1 tsp
palm sugar
Origin · Indonesia
To serve
400 g
fresh kanom jeen (rice vermicelli)
coiled into mounds; or cooked rice vermicelli rinsed in cold water
100 g
bean sprouts
raw
Your own market
1
cucumber
sliced
Your own market
100 g
long beans
blanched and cut into short lengths
50 g
fresh wing beans
raw
100 g
banana blossom
outer leaves removed, thinly sliced
Origin · Thailand
II
The Method
1
Pound the dried chillies and salt in a large mortar until a rough paste forms, adding the salt at the outset so it acts as an abrasive and helps the pestle grip the chillies rather than letting them skid around the bowl. Add the krachai in stages, pounding between each addition, so each batch is fully broken down before the next is introduced and the fibrous rhizome cannot hide in clumps. The paste is ready when it holds together as a single mass and no fibrous strands remain — test by pressing a small amount between finger and thumb.
From the canon — Boesenbergia rotunda — krachai (Thai), Chinese keys, fingerroot — a rhizome of the ginger family with a distinctive aromatic profile: a camphor-fresh, slight… Krachai (Fingerroot / Chinese Keys) →
2
Add the flaked fish to the paste in the mortar and pound continuously, working the fish fully into the paste, until no separate pieces of fish are visible and the mixture is completely smooth and homogeneous — this is where the dish lives or dies, because fish added to the coconut milk before full incorporation with the paste will produce a broken, chunky sauce, whereas only a paste that is smooth throughout will yield the correct fish-enriched, unified sauce. The surface of the paste should be almost glossy and show no distinction between fish and aromatic base.
From the canon — Fresh coconut milk — extracted from freshly grated coconut flesh rather than purchased in a can — and the technique of 'cracking' it: heating the thick, fat-… Coconut Milk: Cracking, Frying, Reducing →
3
Transfer the paste to a wok or heavy saucepan over a moderate flame and add the coconut milk gradually, stirring to dissolve the paste into the milk before the next addition arrives, so the paste disperses evenly rather than seizing into lumps against the heat. Keep the flame moderate throughout so the fat in the coconut milk stays in suspension and does not crack and pool on the surface. The sauce should be smooth and opaque — a uniform pale-orange from the chillies — with no pools of separated fat visible.
4
Simmer the sauce gently, stirring, until it has thickened slightly and the raw chilli edge has mellowed, giving the krachai time to come forward and assert its characteristically forward, slightly bitter note rather than being masked by uncooked aromatics. Season with fish sauce and palm sugar. The sauce is ready when it coats the back of a spoon and tastes of krachai predominantly — with chilli heat following — and the fish provides body rather than a distinct flavour note.
5
Arrange the noodle mounds in four deep bowls and ladle the hot curry sauce over the noodles. Lay the fresh vegetables — bean sprouts, sliced cucumber, blanched long beans, wing beans, and banana blossom — alongside or around the noodles so each mouthful of rich sauce can be tempered against something crisp and cool. The vegetables are not a garnish; they are the balance element of the dish and must be present in quantity.
From the canon — The large, purple, torpedo-shaped flower of the banana plant — hua plee — is a distinctive Thai ingredient used in curries, salads (yam hua plee), and certai… Banana Blossom (Hua Plee): Preparation →
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Fresh kanom jeen from a Thai specialist — fermented, coiled, and sold the same day — with live krachai rhizome and line-caught sea bass steamed to order. The ferment in the noodle is perceptible and works against the richness of the sauce.
02
Estate — Vacuum-packed fresh rice vermicelli, fresh krachai sourced from an Asian grocer, and a whole snapper or sea bass steamed at home and flaked with care.
03
Market — Dried rice vermicelli reconstituted and rinsed in cold water; krachai from a jar preserved in brine, rinsed thoroughly; tinned mackerel in water — which Thompson specifies as perfectly correct for certain versions of this dish.
04
House — Reconstituted dried vermicelli with tinned mackerel and jarred krachai. The sauce will be less complex but the structure of the dish — paste pounded smooth, coconut milk added without cracking, fresh vegetables served alongside — remains intact and correct.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Touch. The paste holds together as a single mass with no fibrous strands of krachai remaining — it binds when pressed between finger and thumb.
◇Sight. After the fish is incorporated, the paste surface is almost glossy and shows no distinction between fish and aromatic base — no white flakes, no separate layers.
◇Sight. The finished sauce is uniform and opaque, pale-orange, coating the back of a spoon with no pools of separated coconut fat on the surface.
◇Smell. The krachai aroma — forward, slightly pepper-forward, distinctly unlike galangal or ginger — is present throughout cooking and remains dominant in the finished sauce.
◇Where it lives or dies. The fish must be pounded until completely smooth and fully integrated with the paste before any coconut milk is added; fish incorporated in pieces produces a sauce with visible chunks rather than the smooth, fish-enriched sauce that is correct.
Pillar V
Cross-cuisine parallels are part of membership.
The dishes this one teaches you, across the cuisines — on every recipe.
Enter · from $49 a year
VI
What to Pour
A cold, lightly sparkling water infused with fresh lime, or a dry, low-alcohol Thai beer — the krachai's volatile aromatic compounds and the coconut milk's richness call for something clean and faintly bitter that resets the palate without competing with the sauce's primary aromatic register.
The whole pairingPillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
Enter · from $49 a year
The working kitchen