Chef Jeong-sun
Mu-jjanji (Salt-Cured Radish)
Whole late-autumn radishes packed in an 18 percent salt brine until crisp and deeply seasoned, then soaked back to balance and dressed with chili, sesame, and scallion for the winter table.
Recipe Archive
Sauces & Condiments
Sauces and condiments carry a surprising amount of technique. Find dressings, marinades, stocks, gravies, relishes, and finishing sauces with clear purpose.
710 recipes
Culinary Explorer
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Recipes
Chef Thomas
Mushroom Gravy
A dark, savoury gravy built from mushrooms browned hard in butter, loosened with stock and thyme, and poured over whatever needs the comfort of it on a cold evening.
Chef Jeong-sun
Myeolchi-aekjeot (Anchovy Fish Sauce)
The clear amber seasoning drawn from salted anchovies after months of waiting, then boiled, settled, and strained twice so kimchi and soups taste deep without tasting muddy.
Chef Jeong-sun
Myeolchi-dasima Yuksu (Anchovy and Kelp Stock)
The quiet broth under half the Korean table: dried anchovies and kelp handled with exact timing, clean enough for soup, strong enough to carry jjigae.
Chef Jeong-sun
Myeolchi-jeot (Salted Anchovy)
Whole anchovies layered with salt and time, fermented until the flesh softens and the brine turns deep and savory; the quiet southern backbone of kimchi.
Chef Jeong-sun
Myeongi-jangajji (Pickled Mountain Garlic)
Young mountain garlic leaves folded into a soy-vinegar brine, mellowed until their sharp green bite becomes the leaf you want around grilled pork, rice, and a full table.
Chef Jeong-sun
Myeongnan-jeot (Salted Pollack Roe)
Intact pollack roe sacs cured with measured salt, rinsed clean, and seasoned lightly with gochugaru, garlic, and soju, so each slice stays whole and tastes of the sea, not the seasoning.
Chef Jeong-sun
Myeongtae-sikhae (Fermented Pollack with Grain)
Firm half-dried pollack folded with cooked grain, malt, radish, and measured seasoning, then fermented cold until the fish turns chewy, savory, and cleanly sharp.
Chef Jeong-sun
Nabak-kimchi (Sliced Radish Water Kimchi)
A pale spring water kimchi of thin radish and cabbage squares, quick to ferment, clean on the tongue, and made for the first spoonful beside juk, rice, or a fuller table.
Chef Jeong-sun
Nakji-jeot (Salted Octopus)
Small octopus cleaned hard with coarse salt, cold-cured until firm, then seasoned with gochugaru, garlic, ginger, and sesame so each chewy piece still tastes of the sea.
Chef Fai
Southern Fermented Fish Sauce (Nam Budu)
The deep south runs on budu, not nam pla. Fermented anchovy sauce cooked down with palm sugar, lime, shallots, and chili into a thick, funky dip that is the salt pillar of Southern Thai cooking.
Chef Fai
Sweet Fish Sauce Dip (Nam Pla Wan)
Fish sauce and palm sugar reduced to a glossy, salty-sweet syrup with raw shallots, sliced chilies, and a squeeze of lime. The four pillars in a jar. Served with unripe fruit that fights back.
Chef Fai
Liver Chili Dip (Nam Prik Dab)
Grilled chicken liver pounded in the krok with charcoal-roasted chilies, garlic, and shallots. The kreung tam foundation taken to its richest, darkest, most Northern expression. Khantoke food, not restaurant food.
Chef Fai
Green Curry Paste (Nam Prik Gaeng Khiew Wan)
This is the kreung tam itself. Nine essential ingredients, pounded in order from hardest to most delicate, building the foundation that every Thai curry stands on. Principles, not recipes.
Chef Fai
Red Curry Paste (Nam Prik Gaeng Phet)
Same nine ingredients as green curry, but dried red chilies replace fresh green. Deeper heat, longer shelf life, wider application. This is the workhorse kreung tam of Central Thai cooking, and it starts in the krok.
Chef Fai
Dry Glass Chili Paste (Nam Prik Haew)
The kreung tam stripped to its driest bones: roasted chilies and garlic pounded until they shatter like glass. Lanna farmers carried this to the rice fields because the mortar can preserve as well as it transforms.
Chef Fai
Shrimp Paste Chili Relish (Nam Prik Kapi)
The four pillars reduced to their rawest form: roasted kapi pounded with dried chilies, garlic, lime, and palm sugar in the granite mortar. Every bite is the Thai flavor system in miniature, eaten with sticky rice on the Lanna khantoke.
Chef Fai
Galangal Chili Dip (Nam Prik Kha)
Five ingredients. Charcoal. A mortar. The kreung tam stripped to its bones: fire transforms, the krok unifies, and galangal steps from background note to the center of the plate.
Chef Fai
Water Bug Chili Relish (Nam Prik Maeng Da)
A Northern Thai nam prik built on the strangest, most captivating aroma in all of Thai cuisine: the floral essence of the giant water bug, pounded into a chili relish that stops conversation and starts obsession.
Chef Fai
Prickly Ash Pepper Relish (Nam Prik Makhwaen)
Makhwaen delivers a numbing citrus electricity no other Thai ingredient replicates. Roast it, pound it with charred chilies and garlic, season with nam pla. Pure Lanna, pure mortar, pure principle.
Chef Fai
Roasted Green Chili Dip (Nam Prik Num)
Fire transforms what the mortar finishes. Roast the prik num over charcoal until the skins blister, pound them in the krok with garlic and shallots, season with nam pla. Northern Thai food at its most elemental.
Chef Fai
Roasted Chili Jam (Nam Prik Pao)
Not a curry paste but a charred condiment paste: every ingredient fried to a different shade of dark, then pounded and cooked down with tamarind, fish sauce, and palm sugar. The four pillars in a jar.
Chef Fai
Mackerel Chili Dip (Nam Prik Pla Too)
Roasted pla too torn apart and pounded into a kreung tam of charred chilies, garlic, and shallots. Fish sauce for salt, lime for sour, palm sugar for sweet, prik haeng for heat. Every Thai mother's answer to the question: what's for dinner?
Chef Fai
Red Eye Chili Dip (Nam Prik Ta Daeng)
Sun-dried red chilies roasted black over charcoal, pounded with garlic, shallots, and fish sauce until your eyes water and your nose runs. That's the name. That's the point. Lanna fire from the krok.
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