Cook the Book
Andy Ricker's Kapi Kung (Homemade shrimp paste)

Use this slightly subtle shrimp paste in Andy Ricker's Kaeng Khiaw Waan Luuk Chin Plaa (Green curry with fish balls and eggplant) from his new Pok Pok cookbook.

Reprinted with permission from Pok Pok: Food and Stories from the Streets, Homes, and Roadside Restaurants of Thailand by Andy Ricker with JJ Goode. Copyright 2013. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House. All rights reserved. Available wherever books are sold.

About This Recipe

Ingredients

  • 2 cups jarred Korean salted shrimp
  • 2 tablespoons Thai shrimp paste (galled gapi or kapi)

Procedures

  1. Briefly rinse the salted shrimp, then put them in a double layer of cheesecloth and gently squeeze out most of the liquid.

  2. Mix the salted shrimp and shrimp paste together in the mortar and pound, stirring occasionally with a spoon, until you have a coarse paste that's a more or less even light brown color, 3 to 5 minutes. It's fine if htere are very small pieces of salted shrimp.

  3. The paste keeps in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 6 months.