Jaew Phrik Reaper

Name: Jaew Phrik Reaper
Prep time: 25 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 6 piece Carolina reaper; 80 ml Sunflower oil; 40 ml Fish sauce; 40 ml Lime juice, freshly squeezed; 20 g Palm sugar, shaved; 25 g Shallot, sliced paper-thin; 10 g Coriander leaf, finely chopped, stems included; 10 g Glutinous rice, toasted and ground coarse; 5 g Spring onion, finely sliced

Isaan table sauce carrying a measured dose of chilli tincture

A table sauce that takes its heat from a fat tincture and its aroma from raw chilli flesh. The placentas of six Carolina reapers infuse into 80 ml of oil at 65 degrees C. 30 ml of that tincture goes into this sauce. The other 50 ml is stored. The flesh of one pod, with the placenta removed, is minced raw into the sauce. The tincture on its own has almost no smell. The capsaicin is made in the placenta and the aroma is made in the flesh, so an extraction of one gives none of the other. The raw flesh restores the fruit note. Lime juice and fish sauce give the heat something to hold onto. A neat oil drizzle coats the mouth in one continuous film. A suspension in an acid base arrives in pulses instead. Serve it in a bowl with a teaspoon. One quarter of a teaspoon is one serving.

CourseCondiment TechniqueFat infusion EquipmentFine-mesh sieve CuisineIsaan OccasionParty CuisineLao CourseSauce CuisineThai

For

4 servings

Why the first revision

First version. Records the sauce as it was made, with sunflower oil, and with the flesh of one pod raw in the sauce to restore the aroma the tincture does not carry.

1
Put on nitrile gloves. Open a window. Turn on the extractor fan. Put baking paper on the board.
Tool nitrile gloves
2
Cut each pod in half lengthways through the stem. Put a paring knife tip under the pale ridge inside. Lift the ridge away from the wall. Do not scrape down at it. Remove the cross-walls also.
The placenta and the flesh wall are two different tissues. They separate cleanly along the join if you lift from below. Scraping down shears through both and spreads the gland contents over the flesh.
6 piece Carolina reaper
3
Put all the ridges and seeds in a small pan. Set the flesh of one pod to one side. Freeze the rest of the flesh.
4
Add the oil to the pan. Heat it to 65 degrees C. Do not let it bubble. Do not fry it. Put the lid on. Hold it for 15 minutes.
Frying a superhot chilli puts capsaicin into the air and will make the room unusable.
80 ml Sunflower oil
Time 15 min
Temp 65 °C
Work Fat infusion
5
Pour the oil through a fine sieve into a jar. Press the solids firmly with a spoon. Discard the solids. You get about 80 ml. Measure 30 ml into a bowl. Put the lid on the jar and refrigerate the rest.
Tool fine-mesh sieve
6
Mince the reserved flesh as finely as you can. Make it almost a paste.
A piece of flesh left whole gives one person the aroma and the residual heat of a whole pod in one bite.
7
Stir the palm sugar into the fish sauce until no grains are left.
Palm sugar does not dissolve well once acid is present. Do this before the lime goes in.
40 ml Fish sauce 20 g Palm sugar
8
Stir in the lime juice. Then stir in the 30 ml of tincture. Then stir in the minced flesh. Taste the liquid below the oil, not through the oil. It must be sour first, then salty, then slightly sweet.
40 ml Lime juice
9
Stir in the shallot, the coriander leaf, the spring onion and the toasted rice powder. Leave it for 10 minutes. Stir it again. Serve it with a teaspoon.
The 10 minutes soften the shallot in the acid and let the rice powder swell.
25 g Shallot 10 g Coriander leaf 10 g Glutinous rice 5 g Spring onion
Time 10 min

Notes

WARNING The spare tincture is a stored hazard. Label the jar.

50 ml of the batch is left after this sauce is made. It keeps for months in the refrigerator.

It is clear oil with almost no smell. Nothing about it looks dangerous. It is roughly the capsaicin of two and a half Carolina reapers in a small jar.

Label the jar. Say what it is and say how much a dose is.

One quarter of a teaspoon of the finished sauce is a serving. Much less than that of the neat tincture is a serving.

It is very good on fried eggs, on plain noodles and on dumplings. Use it a drop at a time.

Sunflower oil stays pourable cold. Coconut oil sets below 24 degrees C and needs a warm spoon.

RecipePairs with

Laab Ped

Isaan duck laab

The same Isaan table register: fish sauce, lime, shallot and toasted rice powder.

RecipePairs with

Gai Ob Hom Yai

Chicken Marylands braised on a bed of deep-gold onions, with the heat dosed from a chilli tincture

Made from the same tincture. The braise takes 12 ml and this sauce takes 30 ml of the 80 ml batch.

Jaew Phrik Reaper

Why the first revision

Notes

Related

Laab Ped

Gai Ob Hom Yai

The science