Today, I am honored to have another real chef and cookbook author as a guest writer–Ivy Manning of Ivy’s Feast. Ivy is my Facebook fan. Based in Oregon, Ivy is a freelance food and travel writer, food stylist, and author of two cookbooks: The Farm to Table Cookbook: The Art of Eating Locally and The Adaptable Feast. Her work has been featured in Cooking Light, Sunset Magazine, Food and Wine Magazine, and more. Please welcome Ivy to Rasa Malaysia as she shares a very special Thai recipe with us and elaborates on some essential Thai ingredients. Called “Ma Haw” in Thai, this bite-size appetizer is great for your upcoming summer parties. Enjoy!
Ma Haw (Thai Minced Pork and Shrimp Relish on Fruit Segments)
Guest Writer: Ivy Manning
Ever since my big sister introduced me to the guilty pleasure of dipping pretzels into our family’s omnipresent jar of Skippy, I have loved the combination of sweet and salty-savory flavors together. Something about the way the disparate sensations race across the palate when they are combined makes food much more than a sum of its parts.
After a brief conversation about my love of sweet-salty combos, Rasa Malaysia asked me if I had a favorite sweet-salty recipe to share with her readers. We assumed you could figure out the pretzel-peanut butter chemistry on your own, so my mind raced directly to THE cuisine (in my esteem) that best combines tantalizing flavor combinations: Thai food. My favorite sweet-salty from Thailand is called Ma Haw, which means “galloping horses” in Thai. It’s essentially fruit pieces topped with a minced meat relish. The first time I had it, I was hanging out with Chef Sompon Nabnian, a well known cooking instructor and author in Chiang Mai. I was smitten from the first bite…(get Ma Haw recipe after the jump)
Thai cuisine has a long tradition of spicy ground meat-based dips and relishes served with raw sliced vegetables and fried pork skins as a way to pique the appetite. But Ma Haw turns that tradition on its ear—instead of crudités, fresh pineapple and juicy orange segments are vehicles for the dip, and instead of a chilies and meat, this dip is all about the sweetness of palm sugar and the funky saltiness of fish sauce. Minced pork and shrimp, fried shallots, and peanuts are there for texture and flavor.
The resulting little bites provide a galloping of flavors across the palate, perhaps that explains their rather precious name. Whatever you call these easy, impressive looking nibbles, I think you find that they are a shockingly effective way to get your appetite up for the fiery curries, creamy coconut soups, and crisp salads we associate with Thai food.
I’d like to make a quick note on the ingredients before you get started, just in case you are not familiar with Thai ingredients. The recipe calls for cilantro roots, which add a stronger flavor than the leaves. Occasionally you will find these aromatic off-white roots still attached to the base of a bunch of cilantro; it’s more common to see them in Asian markets than Western grocery stores. Whenever I do find them, I wash them and freeze them so I have them ready for homemade curry pastes and dishes like this. You can substitute cilantro stems in this recipe if you must.
Since the sauce in this recipe is essentially equal parts palm sugar and fish sauce, the quality of each matters greatly. I use soft palm sugar (the kind that comes in jars) because it is much easier to scoop out than the hard UFO-shaped cakes. For fish sauce, I use the Golden Boy Brand; you will know it by the charming illustration of a little boy sitting on a globe with a bottle of fish sauce cradled in his arms. It has a pure, authentic taste that isn’t at all murky or caustically salty like other less expensive brands. At the end, I add fried sliced shallots, which you can find in plastic jars at Asian markets in the Vietnamese or Thai food section. They keep indefinitely in a cool, dry place and they add a lovely crunch to salads, salad rolls, and even pork curries.
Ingredients:
1/2 pineapple, hard skin trimmed away
1 orange, peel and white pith cut away and discarded
1 tablespoon minced cilantro roots, plus cilantro leaves for garnish
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
Scant 1/4 teaspoon white peppercorns (about 10)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 ounces ground pork
2 ounces shrimp, peeled and deveined (about 1/4 cup finely chopped)
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/2 cup soft palm sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons chopped roasted peanuts
1/3 cup fried shallots
2 tablespoons finely minced red bell pepper or red jalapeño pepper
Method:
- Cut the hard center core out of the pineapple and discard. Cut the pineapple into bite-sized triangle shaped pieces that are about 1/4-inch thick. Cut the orange in half lengthwise and cut the halves into 1/2-inch thick slices. Arrange fruit on a serving platter and set aside.
- Pound the cilantro roots, garlic, and peppercorns in a mortar and pestle until you have a fine paste, set aside.
- Heat the oil in a wok over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the pork and cilantro root mixture and stir-fry until the meat is no longer pink. Add the shrimp and continue to cook until it is opaque white, 2 minutes. Turn contents of wok out into a small bowl.
- Return the wok to the stove. Combine the fish sauce and palm sugar and cook over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Add the peanuts and continue to cook and stir until the mixture has thickened and is golden brown, 5 minutes.
- Drain off the fat from the pork mixture and discard. Return the pork mixture to the wok and stir to combine with fish sauce mixture. Remove from heat, add the fried shallots, and stir to combine. Top each piece of fruit with a small amount of the pork mixture, garnish with minced red pepper and cilantro leaves, and serve immediately.
Note from Rasa Malaysia:
You can get Thai ingredients, cookware, and more online at Temple of Thai.
Related Posts:
- Tom Kha Gai Recipe (Thai Coconut Chicken Soup)
- Thai Curry
- Thai Fish Cake (Tod Mun Pla) Recipe
- Pad Thai Recipe from The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook
- Braised Pork Belly Recipe (Filipino Humba)
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
This ma haw is very interesting, I don’t think I have seen it before at Thai restaurants in the US. Wish they offer these, I can already imagine how tasty they are.
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Nice recipe… never heard about “ma haw”, but I have everything to try it! Thank you sharing…
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Interesting recipe. I remember having this at a Thai restaurant in Thailand, but I think they use ground peanuts and ground pork. But the idea of ground pork and shrimp for ma haw sound equally tantalizing.
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Ivysfeast replied:
Yes, I have had it with just pork, pork and shrimp, and have actually made it with minced seitan and soy sauce instead of fish sauce for my vegetarian husband. I think it’s negotiable what the ground protein is, the constant is the sweet and salty flavors. :)
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Ma Haw = galloping horses? I think it’s hilarious that’s the meaning of the dish in Thai. But then what can I say, some Thai dishes have really interesting names, for example my favorite son-in-law eggs. HAHA.
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At a glance, I thought the name of the dish is mohawk. Never heard of this but it looks very delicious and I can imagine the taste. Yummy.
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This is first time I’ve heard about Ma-Haw.
It looks delicious. :)
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I have a recipe for this in my cookbook: “Real Thai” by Nancie McDermott. It uses ground pork and peanuts on pineapple. She has you use a “cilantro pesto”: cilantro, garlic, white or black peppercorns ground up.
Nancie also notes that the literal translation of the dish is “horses of the Haw”; the Haw are a Yunnan tribe who long ago migrated into northern Thailand. Both yours and Nancie’s sound scrumptious, and I will try to prep yours and give feedback.
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These look cute :)
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These look like they would work great as an appetizer! I can see many combinations in my future!
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Can you make the relish the day before and reheat the next day? Thanks!
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Yes, you can.
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Wow these are fabulous! I made them with ground turkey and didn’t have palm sugar on hand so used light brown sugar - the results were highly addictive..Thank you so much!
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Thanks for feedback. Now we know we can subsitute ground turkey, too, for this ma haw recipe.
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Hi there, If I was preparing pork and shrimp patties or won ton type dishes, could I use fish instead of shrimp?
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Rasa Malaysia replied:
Well, fish is not ideal. Shrimp is best.
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