Khanom jeen nam ya: fish curry sauce and noodle accompaniments

What the dish is and when to make it

Khanom jeen nam ya pairs a fish curry sauce (nam ya) with soft rice noodles (khanom jeen), served with fresh, crunchy and pickled sides. In the coconut-based version described by Hot Thai Kitchen, poached white fish is mashed finely and simmered with a chili and herb paste, coconut milk and seasonings, so the fish thickens the sauce instead of staying in chunks. Hot Thai Kitchen presents it as a specialty of a southern Thai hometown.

The dish works best as an assembled meal. The sauce, noodles and accompaniments are prepared separately and combined at serving time, which makes it practical for feeding several people from shared components.

Ingredients for the coconut fish sauce

Mild dried chilies, plus hot chilies if you want more heat
Lemongrass
White fish
Galangal
Fingerroot (krachai)
Garlic
Shallots
Turmeric
Fermented shrimp paste
Coconut milk
Palm sugar
Fish sauce
Tamarind

For scale, Hot Thai Kitchen's batch uses 100 g fish, 375 ml coconut milk and 200 g dried rice noodles. Other quantities aren't given here, so use a complete recipe if you need exact amounts for the paste ingredients.

Finding fingerroot

Fingerroot may be labeled krachai, kachai, pickled rhizome or pickled galingale. Hot Thai Kitchen accepts fresh, frozen or brined fingerroot. The "pickled galingale" label is easy to mistake for galangal, which the recipe also uses as a separate ingredient.

Making the sauce, step by step

1. Soften the dried chilies so they will blend smoothly.
2. Bruise the lemongrass tops and poach the fish with them until the fish is cooked.
3. Keep the poaching liquid. Remove the fish and mash it finely.
4. Blend the softened chilies and the remaining aromatics with the shrimp paste and just enough coconut milk to let the blender run.
5. Combine the blended paste with the poaching liquid, the rest of the coconut milk, the mashed fish, and the palm sugar, fish sauce and tamarind.
6. Simmer on low for about 20 minutes.
7. Taste and adjust with water, fish sauce and tamarind.

When to change course

If the sauce is thicker than you want, add water.
If it tastes flat or under-salted, add fish sauce.
If it lacks sourness, add tamarind.
If the paste won't blend, add a little more coconut milk rather than adding all of it at this stage, since most of the coconut milk goes in afterward.
If you want more heat, add the optional hot chilies alongside the mild dried ones.

Preparing the noodles

Cook the dried rice noodles until tender, then let them cool. Gather them into small bundles, one per portion. The bundles make it easy to plate each serving and pour the sauce over.

Accompaniments

Crunchy fresh vegetables
Pickled mustard greens, rinsed and chopped
Egg (optional)
Basil (optional)

A serving worksheet can help coordinate the parts (this is an illustrative planning example, not part of the source recipe). Give the sauce, the noodles, the crunchy vegetables, the pickle and any egg or herbs each their own row. Note the quantity for each row and the order you'll assemble them.

Component	Preparation	Assembly order
Noodles	Cooked until tender, cooled, bundled	1
Fish curry sauce	Simmered, seasoned to taste	2
Crunchy vegetables	Washed, cut	3
Pickled mustard greens	Rinsed, chopped	3
Egg and basil	Optional	4

Judging progress and the finished dish

Chilies: soft enough to blend into the paste.
Fish: cooked through during poaching, then mashed finely so it disperses through the sauce.
Sauce: after about 20 minutes of gentle simmering, its consistency and balance of salt, sourness and sweetness should suit your taste, adjusted with water, fish sauce and tamarind.
Noodles: tender, cooled and holding together in bundles.

The source specifies only that the fish be poached until cooked, without giving a temperature or visual doneness test. Use a food-safety reference for fish doneness before mashing it into the sauce.