Nam Prik: Salted Duck Egg Relish

First of all let me start by saying this is an adaptation of a recipe from David Thompson's Thai Food.  If you're serious about Thai food and you're willing to spend the time sourcing ingredients this is my absolute first recommendation for a book (novices should start elsewhere, you won't find a canned curry paste in the book).

Now, on to the recipe; Nam Prik roughly translates as a relish, and are a wide array of dishes often eaten with vegetables or rice (or in my case pita chips), and this one is, in my opinion, the Thai version of egg salad, only deeper, richer, more nuanced, and, oh yeah, about as hot as the surface of the sun.  I call for the upper limit of chiles in this because that's how I like it, but if you don't like feeling like you've been sucking on a super nova you might want to cut this down a lot.

Ingredients:
4 salted duck eggs (available in some Asian groceries, these are salted and cooked duck eggs as you would expect), peeled and chunked
7-8 garlic cloves, crushed
2 t shrimp paste, (optionally toasted)
2 T dried shrimp, ground
16-20 Thai chiles (or 6 if you're a wimp)
2 T palm sugar
2 T tamarind paste
1.5 T fish sauce
2 T lime juice
2 stalks of cilantro, stem and all (optional, but very nice)

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth; if the paste is too thick add some water to thin it out; it shouldn't actually be as thick as egg salad.  Adjust for salt and sugar if necessary.

Ham and Cheese Quiche

This is a very basic quiche, basically just a ham and cheese sandwich with eggs instead of bread (like that's a bad thing).

1 C cream or half and half
1/3 lb of good ham chopped (I like black forest cut extra thick by the deli then chopped)
1 1/2 C grated Jarlsburg or gruyere
pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
1 pie crust, either homemade or frozen
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Dock crust and blind bake until lightly golden (10-15 minutes).  Meanwhile, brown the ham well in a skillet with a little oil or butter.  Layer the bottom of the pie crust with the ham then the cheese. Combine the rest of the ingredients and whisk thoroughly, adjust seasoning as necessary.  Pour in to pie shell and cook until set, approximately 35 minutes.