Nam Jim Muoi - Muoi's hamburger relish

Hamburgers have become popular in Thailand, but the relishes available - 
mainly imported products - are bland, and sweet, and not to local tastes 
(they are however sometimes eaten like jam...) 

This is my wife's recipe for a spicy relish. It consists of four 
components, and the first - the mayonnaise - can be used on its own as a 
salad dressing or crudite dip. 

To mellow the flavor, and get a more interesting variety of flavors, the 
chilis used are from the normal table condiments of prik dong (red 
birdseye chilis in rice wine vinegar) and nam pla prik (green birdseye 
chilis in fish sauce), drained before use. The liquor can of course be 
recycled to make more prik dong and nam pla prik. If you don't have 
these items to hand, you should prepare some about a week in advance to 
give the flavors a chance to develop. 

Similarly the "three gingers" - khing (green root ginger), kha 
(galangal), and kachai (lesser ginger), are sauteed in a little oil. 
They can be kept in a jar with enough oil to cover the ginger, and if 
they don't dry out will keep almost indefinately. Again if you do have 
the prepared sauteed gingers, then simply drain the amount you need. If 
not, then peel and cut the ginger into slices about an eigth of an inch 
thick, sautee the slices in peanut oil over medium heat, then julienne 
and chop the slices. 

Component 1: Mayonnaise 

ingredients 

2 large egg yolks (we use duck eggs) 
1 tablespoon of chopped garlic 
1 tablespoon of mustard powder 
1 tablespoon of drained prik kin nu daeng (red chilis - see note) 
1 cup of extra virgin olive oil 

method 

put the garlic, mustard powder, drained pickled chilis, and a dash of 
olive oil in a liquidizer, and puree. Add the egg yolks, and then 
srizzle in the remainder of the oil as you whisk the mixture. 

Component 2: gingers and chilis 

ingredients 

6 tablespoons of drained prik ki nu (green chilis - see note) 
6 tablespoons of drained prik ki nu daeng (red chilis - see note) 
2 tablespoons of sauteed khing (ginger - see note) 
2 tablespoons of sauteed kha (galangal - see note) 
2 tablespoons of sauteed kachai (lesser ginger - see note) 

method 

drain the vinegar and fish sauce from the thinly sliced chilis, and toss 
the ingredients together 

Component 3: tomatoes 

Drop ripe red tomatoes in boiling water for a few seconds to loosen the 
skin, then peel and core them, and then quarter them and discard the 
seed pulp (the skins and seeds can be reserved for stock making). 

Coarsely chop the tomato segments: you want 1 cup of chopped tomato 

Component 4: onions 

Cut and dice a cup of onions: in Thailand we use hom daeng (shallots, or 
purple onions), which are plentiful and cheap. I understand they are 
less cheap in other countries, so you could easily use ordinary 
"spanish" onions. 

Then sautee the onions briefly in a little olive oil or butter to soften 
them and moderate the taste. 

Finally combine the four ingredients to form the relish. 

This gives about 4 cups. The ingredients other than the mayonnaise will 
keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks, but containing uncooked eggs 
the mayonnaise has limited keeping capacity. You might prefer to make 
mayonnaise fresh and combine it with the other ingredients as required. 

You might also prefer to put the four ingredients in small bowls, and 
let the diners mix the relish to suit themselves... 

          *****  And I would suggest warning small children ***** 
          *****  and the chili intolerant that this might   ***** 
          *****  look like bottled relish, but has a little ***** 
          *****  more bite to it :-)                        *****