Roasted Chilli Paste (Nam Prik Pao)
Nam prik pao — roasted chilli paste — appears throughout Thompson's *Thai Food* as the most versatile of the prepared chilli pastes. It is made in advance, keeps for months in the refrigerator under a layer of oil, and is added in quantities from a teaspoon to a tablespoon depending on the application.
A dark, smoky, deeply flavoured paste of roasted dried chillies, shallots, and garlic — the paste that flavours tom yam nam khon, that enriches pad Thai, and that serves as a standalone condiment with vegetables and grilled fish. Nam prik pao is the Thai kitchen's equivalent of the fond in a French roasting pan: a concentrated, caramelised depth source that transforms whatever it touches.
Roasted chilli and roasted allium create a paste where the Maillard compounds of caramelised shallot and garlic — the same pyrazines and furanones that develop in caramel — combine with the capsaicinoid-derived smoky compounds of the roasted chilli. As Segnit notes, smoke as a flavour register works because pyrolysis compounds — the same family as Maillard-derived Maillard ones — provide a complexity that no fresh aromatic achieves. The dried shrimp adds glutamate depth that makes all other flavours in the paste more perceptible.
**Ingredient precision:** - Dried long red chillies: 20g, dry-roasted in a pan until darkened — not burnt, but deeply coloured and slightly charred at the edges. The roasting develops smoky, bitter-sweet compounds that are the paste's primary character. - Shallots: 100g, roasted in their skins directly in a flame or dry pan until black and soft - Garlic: 40g, roasted in the same way - Dried shrimp (goong haeng): 30g — dry-toasted briefly in a pan - Shrimp paste (gapi): 1 teaspoon — roasted in foil - Fish sauce: 1 tablespoon - Palm sugar: 2 tablespoons - Tamarind liquid: 2 tablespoons **The method:** 1. Pound the roasted dried chillies to a paste in the mortar. 2. Add peeled roasted shallots and garlic. Pound to a smooth paste. 3. Add dried shrimp. Pound in. 4. Add roasted shrimp paste. 5. Season with fish sauce, palm sugar, and tamarind — balance to taste. The paste should be sweet, slightly sour, salty, and deeply smoky. 6. Fry the finished paste in a tablespoon of neutral oil in a wok over medium heat for 5 minutes — this develops the paste's flavour further and extends its shelf life. Decisive moment: The roasting of the dried chillies — and the degree of roasting. Under-roasted: the paste lacks the characteristic smoky depth and is merely a dried chilli paste without the caramelised complexity. Over-roasted: the chillies are bitter and acrid throughout. The correct degree: the chilli is darkened and slightly charred at the edges with a deep, smoky aroma and a flavour that is simultaneously bitter, fruity, and smoky. Sensory tests: **Smell — the roasting chilli:** Under a moderate heat, dried chillies begin to smell of dry, slightly smoky chilli within 1–2 minutes. The correct roasting point is when the smell is deeply aromatic — smoky, slightly sweet, complex — without any harsh burnt note. This is brief: 30–60 seconds at the correct temperature before the smell shifts from correct to acrid. **Sight:** Dried long red chillies at the correct roasting point: darkened throughout, with small areas of visible charring at the skin surface — perhaps 20% of the surface area slightly darker than the rest. Not uniformly black. **Taste — the finished paste:** Nam prik pao should taste of all four registers simultaneously but with smoke as the dominant character underneath. The smoke is not a flavour in the Thai four-taste system — it is a character, a depth, a background that makes the four-taste balance perceptible as more complex than it would be without it.
David Thompson — *Thai Food*
Common Questions
Why does Roasted Chilli Paste (Nam Prik Pao) taste the way it does?
Roasted chilli and roasted allium create a paste where the Maillard compounds of caramelised shallot and garlic — the same pyrazines and furanones that develop in caramel — combine with the capsaicinoid-derived smoky compounds of the roasted chilli. As Segnit notes, smoke as a flavour register works because pyrolysis compounds — the same family as Maillard-derived Maillard ones — provide a complexity that no fresh aromatic achieves. The dried shrimp adds glutamate depth that makes all other flavours in the paste more perceptible.