Pounded Charred Eggplant Dip

Not every highland dish involves the hunt or the fire-blackened tube — some are as plain as an eggplant thrown into the coals while something bigger cooks. Charring vegetables whole and pounding them into a smoky dip is old, thrifty cooking, the kind the Tampuan and Kreung have done for as long as there have been eggplants and embers, and it predates any kingdom that later claimed these hills. The small striped highland eggplants blacken and collapse over a fire, then get pounded with charred garlic, charred chilli, and prahok into something punchy enough to season a whole bowl of rice. It is the forest's answer to a relish: a little vessel of concentrated smoke and funk that turns plain rice and raw greens into a meal.

The whole thing turns on the char. Blacken the eggplants until the skin is truly ruined and the flesh goes to slush inside — a timid scorch leaves them raw and smokeless. Peel by hand and resist the tap; water carries the smoke away and leaves you the bitterness. In the mortar, keep it rough: garlic and chilli to a paste first, then the soft eggplant pounded just enough to bind, prahok and lime and palm sugar worked in to balance. What you want is texture you can feel and a flavour that punches above the humble ingredients. Set it out at room temperature with beans and cucumber, and let the smoke do the talking.