This is one Thai appetizer I simply can’t resist.
I had my first encounter with miang kum when my sister gave me a tray of packaged cut ingredients and some sauce. “What’s this?” I asked suspiciously. “No idea,” she replied. “My boss gave me two trays so you can have one.”
No one else was game enough to try it, so I did. I used the leaves as the ‘wrap’ for the ingredients, topped that with the sauce and bit into it. As I chewed the small parcel, various flavours exploded in my mouth. There was no turning back – I was hooked.
I was glad there were no takers for the miang kum that day because I couldn’t get enough of it.
I asked anyone who went to Thailand to get me trays of miang kum. They were kind enough to oblige but I wanted a constant supply.
I have a patch of piper sarmentosum in the garden and most of the ingredients were not an issue. The sauce was, so I had to learn how to make my own.
Now that I have the recipe, all I need to do is to gather the ingredients, pick the piper sarmentosum leaves in the garden, get the sauce and … I’m in business!!
The recipe: 
A
2 shallots
1 stalk lemon grass
1 inch fresh ginger
½ inch galangal
a knob of dried prawn paste
1 tbsp dried shrimps
1 tbsp toasted shredded coconut
2 tbsp roasted peanuts
B
1 cup palm sugar
2 cups water
C
2 limes, diced
1 ½ inch young ginger, diced
2 shallots, diced
2 tbsp toasted shredded coconut
2 tbsp dried shrimps
2 tbsp fried peanuts
2 tsp chillies, cut
20 piper sarmentosum (daun kadok) leaves – lettuce or other salad leaves can be used as a substitute
- Grind or pound ingredients A finely.
- Transfer ground ingredients A to a pot, add B and bring to a boil.
- Lower heat and simmer liquid until it is reduced to 1 cup. Allow this sauce to cool.
- To serve, pour thick sauce into a serving bowl.
- Arrange ingredients B separately in small bowls.
- To eat, shape a piper sarmentosum leaf into a cone. Place one of each C ingredient into the cone and add half a teasp of sauce. Enjoy!!
Care and cultivation of piper sarmentosum: part shade; water generously; not fussy about soil; propagate using vegetative cuttings
Now you just made me hungry all over again!
hungry’s good, sky. and this is mostly herbs after all.
Come here make for me!
can i take the sauce in, you think? if i can, i’ll make you a tub.
I think so. I’m not too sure, but usually meat is the issue at customs right?
i like it ~~~
can always have more, ed.
Gardener, I remember all the happy times (in a very unhappy place) sometimes back (in what now seems like a very distant past) – and on the center of it, is the memory of eating this with you and the rest of the people I call friends. I need to print this and ask the significant other to try it out
I’m definitely trying this Typicalgardener! Thanks for the recipe.
I’m not familiar with the leaf but it looks like the stuff we put in our ‘Otak-otak’. Is it also called the Ka Lao leaf?
that’s the one – daun kadok.
daun kadok grows easily and can be found at the edge of the garden near the drain in most houses or u can get this at the malay pasar pagi…. I love miang kam …thanks so much for the recipe “typicalgardener”…
eggs mixed with thinly sliced daun kadok and fried scambled is also very tasty…
yums, more recipes to try!!
eh i remember this! didnt you bring this to the office once upon a time ago!?!? =) nice nice!! i like =)
yeah! wow, good memory, papakeechee. remember ATC was so suspicious? “what’s that??” he asked. after he tried one, he wanted more!
Who…or WHAT is an ATC?
it’s a ‘who’. tell you about ATC one day.
That is really yummy!!!!! I tried that!!!