Tam Khanun

Ingredients

• 700 g young green jackfruit, peeled and cut into chunks (tinned in brine works well)
• 200 g minced pork
• 8 dried long red chillies
• 6 shallots
• 8 garlic cloves
• 1 stalk lemongrass
• 1 tbsp shrimp paste
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 6 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 5 kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded
• 3 tbsp crisp fried garlic
• 1 handful coriander leaves
• Pork crackling and sticky rice, to serve

Before you cook

• Rub your hands with oil before touching fresh jackfruit, because the sap is very sticky.
• Peel the jackfruit and cut it into 4 cm chunks.
• Soak the dried chillies in warm water for 15 minutes and drain them.
• Pound the chillies, lemongrass, shallots, garlic, shrimp paste and salt into a coarse paste.
• Shred the kaffir lime leaves as finely as you can manage.

Steps

1. Boil the jackfruit chunks in well salted water for 30 to 40 minutes, until a knife slides in with no resistance.
2. Drain the jackfruit and leave it until it is cool enough to handle.
3. Pound the jackfruit briefly in a large mortar, or crush it with a fork, so it breaks into soft fibrous shreds without turning to mush.
4. Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat and fry the chilli paste for 3 minutes.
5. Add the minced pork and fry for 4 minutes until it is cooked through and coated in paste.
6. Add the halved tomatoes and press them until they release their juice into the wok.
7. Fold in the shredded jackfruit and turn everything together for 5 minutes, so the fibres soak up the paste.
8. Season with the fish sauce and taste: it should be salty and savoury with a slow chilli heat, and not sour.
9. Stir through most of the shredded kaffir lime leaf and take the wok off the heat.
10. Pile it onto a plate and top with the fried garlic, the last of the lime leaf and the coriander.
11. Serve warm with sticky rice and a bowl of pork crackling for scooping.