Mixed Cooked Vegetables, Merchants’ Style

Name: Mixed Cooked Vegetables, Merchants’ Style (Soop Phak Po Kha)
Cuisine: Luang prabang
Ingredients: 3 bunches of mak kheng Thai (a tiny eggplant), stems removed; 1 bunch of phak tam ling (an edible leaf), the young leaves and tender stems only; salt and fish sauce; 1 spring onion, the leaves only, finely chopped; 1 handful of jelly mushrooms—cut off the bottoms, chop finely and wash; 5 (small) shallots, cooked in the embers of a charcoal fire, these three ingredients to be pounded together to constitute the Kheuang hom; 1 piece of grilled fish, about the size of four fingers, rid of all bones and then prodded with a pestle until separated into flakes; 1 nam wah (banana ‘flower’)—discard the old petals and cut the ‘flower’ into four quarters; 3 straight-bulbed spring onions, the bulbs only, finely chopped; 2 sprigs of coriander, the leaves only, chopped; 2 (small) heads of garlic, cooked in the embers of a charcoal fire, these three ingredients to be pounded together to constitute the Kheuang hom; 1 dried red chilli pepper, grilled until crisp, these three ingredients to be pounded together to constitute the Kheuang hom; 4 spoonfuls of roasted sesame seeds, finely ground; 1 bunch of young white mushrooms—cut off the bottoms and wash; 1 handful of mak phak poom (Chinese radish pods), washed; 1 bunch of young spinach, the tender shoots only; 5 sweet young round eggplants, quartered and washed; 10 young mak paep (sword bean)—string the pods; 6 yard-long beans, cut into pieces as long as the section of a finger (say, 3 cm)

Soop Phak Po Kha

Preparation info

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Traditional Recipes of Laos

By Phia Sing

Published 1981

About

Ingredients

1 bunch of phak kan tan (an edible leaf), the tender shoots only
1 bunch of phak kaab pi (an edible lea

Asia
Laos
Side dish
Pescatarian
Southeast Asia
Gluten-free
Spicy

Method

Put all the steamed vegetables and the prepared rattan in a large bowl (together with the kheuang hom). Sprinkle salt and fish sauce over them. Mix thoroughly and add the fish and ground sesame seeds. Taste, and check the saltiness. Then put in the chopped spring onion leaves (and bulbs), arrange on a platter, (garnish with coriander) and serve.

The accompaniment