Miang Kham really means ‘One Bite’. That is why it has to be wrapped in small leaves and eaten in one bite. One bite with the essential Thai flavours of spicy heat, sweet, sour and salty just bursts in your mouth! It’s like a multi-ingredient salad dumpling that you have to make yourself… as my friend told me – it’s like a popiah (fresh spring roll) but with veggie pancake wrapper! Of course, traditionally you use It is quite a time-consuming dish to make, but make it in bulk for a lot of people and it is time well spent. This is a perfect party dish!

This version can be made vegetarian by omitting the dried prawns, shrimp paste and fish sauce, and replacing it with finely chopped mushrooms sauteed gently in oil with a little soy sauce for seasoning to make it slightly salty.

This is to make a party snack portion for around 5-6 people.

Ingredients:

2 heads of small lettuce (I use Butterhead lettuce here because of it’s shape)

For the salad garnish:

1 lime *

3 red shallots, diced into small cubes

1 small pack of firm tofu, dried and cubed into small-ish pieces

1/2 cup of roasted and salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

A piece of ginger that is around 7-8cm long, diced into small cubes

5-6 fresh bird’s eye chillies, sliced thin (and de-seed if you want it to be less spicy)

A handful of coriander, picked for the leaves, and coarsely chopped

2 stalks of lemongrass, hard outer leaves removed until you only have the soft middle part, and sliced thin

3 tbsps of dried shrimp, soaked until soft, and then drained and set aside // vegetarian: 1 cup of finely chopped mushrooms, sauteed with a little soy sauce

3 tbsps of kerisik (which is dried coconut flakes, dry-fried in a pan until brown and toasty)

For the sauce:

1 tbsp of kerisik

2 tbsps of roasted, salted peanuts, finely chopped

1/2 tbsp of shrimp paste (belacan) // vegetarian: 1/3 cup of finely chopped mushrooms, sauteed with a little soy sauce

1 stalk of lemongrass, bashed and then sliced thinly

1 red shallot, sliced and diced fine

1/2 thumb-sized ginger, chopped fine

1/2 cup of gula melaka, grated

1 tbsp of fish sauce // vegetarian: 1 tbsp of soy sauce

1/4 cup of water

Steps:

1. Prepare the salad leaves – clean and separate the salad leaves. Make sure it is dry and pile them in a bowl. Set aside.
2. For the sauce: gently heat up all the sauce ingredients in a pot, adding more water if it gets too thick (it should have the consistency of peanut butter)
3. For the garnish: * the lime prep! Zest the lime by just removing the skin (but without the rind – the white bits) and slice into thin strips. Cut the lime up into chunks, and if you can remove as much of the rind as you can.
4. Arrange all the garnish ingredients on a platter, and have a bowl of the sauce in the center.
5. To eat: take a piece of lettuce, and add a little of each garnish (around half a teaspoon or a pinch according to what you dare to try! A teaspoon of birds eye chillies is too adventurous even for me!). Top it with a little of the sauce, fold it into a small wrapped bundle, and as the name states – all in one bite!
6. Enjoy and explore the sweet and sourness from the sauce, the spiciness from the chillies and the saltiness from the peanuts and of course the 5th flavour of umami from the dried shrimps or mushrooms!