Miang Kham

Pailin Chongchitnant’s selected miang kham gathers a small assortment of sweet, sour, nutty and aromatic fillings inside wild betel leaves. She describes making it in her mother’s garden in Thailand, with each leaf folded into a small cup.

Toasted coconut, roasted peanuts and softened dried shrimp join diced shallot, ginger, chilies and thin-skinned lime pieces for the wraps. This selected lime preparation keeps the skin and flesh together.

The sauce starts with ground dried shrimp, galangal and ginger blended with part of its measured water. The remainder rinses the blender into the same pot, retaining that aromatic mixture.

Palm sugar, shrimp paste and fish sauce simmer with the blended base before ground toasted coconut and peanuts are added. The sauce cools to a lukewarm consistency, with a little extra water or fish sauce offered only as needed.

Each wild betel leaf becomes a cone filled to taste with the prepared wrap ingredients. A little of the sweet-savoury sauce goes on top before the cup closes into a single bite, bringing the different textures together.