Jaew Het (แจ่วเห็ด)

The Jaew That Finds Its Protein In The Field

แจ่ว (jaew) in Isaan is a family of roasted-and-pounded relishes — the smoke comes first, the mortar second, and the seasoning last. แจ่วเห็ด swaps the usual meat for เห็ดฟาง, straw mushrooms, the common field mushroom of Thai markets. Kapook's Isaan cook writes that in her village they are เห็ดเฟือง, and the same dip answers to four names depending on who is speaking: แจ่วเห็ดฟาง, แจ่วปลาร้าเห็ดฟาง, ป่นเห็ดฟาง and น้ำพริกเห็ดฟาง.

The technique barely changes across sources. Everything gets fire first — chillies, shallots and garlic roasted dry in a pan or over charcoal until blistered, the mushrooms roasted or grilled after them — then the mortar does the mixing, and น้ำปลาร้า, the Isaan fermented fish sauce, does the flavouring. Wongnai's version adds lime and sugar to round it; Krua.co's northern-inflected version roasts tomatoes and young galangal into the pound.

It is a dip for the table's edges: sticky rice pressed into it, steamed vegetables, raw herbs. Wongnai's cook posts her recipe with one line of instruction to the reader — เอาข้าวเหนียวมาจิ้มโล๊ด, "take your sticky rice and dip."

The Recipe (home version, from Wongnai / Kapook)

The pure pot (Cookpad, Chana D.): 200 g straw mushrooms, chillies, shallots and garlic roasted, mushrooms grilled on skewers or in an air fryer, everything pounded together and seasoned with nothing but น้ำปลาร้า — "seasoning with nam pla ra alone is already delicious." The Isaan market pot (Kapook Creator, iTha): two handfuls of straw mushrooms, a pinch of Karen chillies, a fistful of onion, spring onion and coriander, MSG and Rosdee powder, two spoons of nam pla ra, a splash of fish sauce and half a lime. The northern-tinged pot (Krua.co): straw mushrooms plus เห็ดกระด้าง, green and red bird's eye chillies, chopped young galangal, ten shallots, a head of garlic and three sida tomatoes — all charred over charcoal, pounded fine, seasoned with boiled pla ra, fish sauce and water, served with steamed vegetables and sticky rice.

The Method

1. The mushrooms. Wash the straw mushrooms, drain well and halve or quarter them — Lemon8's home cooks quarter them so the seasoning reaches the centre.
2. The roast. Roast the chillies, shallots and garlic in a dry pan until blistered and fragrant — Wongnai adds five spoons of water and roasts until it dries out, which steams the aromatics soft before the char. Then roast or grill the mushrooms: pan-roast, skewer-grill over charcoal, or air-fry, per Cookpad.
3. The pound. Pound the roasted aromatics in the mortar — coarse or fine is the cook's choice — then add the mushrooms and pound only enough to break and mix them. Krua.co peels the charred garlic and shallot skins first.
4. The season. Nam pla ra and fish sauce for the salt and funk, lime for the sour, a little sugar to round it. The Cookpad version trusts pla ra alone; the Wongnai version measures both sauces against a lime.
5. The finish. Fold in the spring onion and coriander, tip into a bowl and serve with sticky rice, steamed long beans and cabbage, or raw herbs.

Where Thai Sources Disagree

How Western Versions Get It Wrong

• Raw mushrooms in the blender. The whole point of jaew is the roast — raw button mushrooms blitzed with raw aromatics make a pasty pâté, not a jaew. Every source cooks everything before the mortar.
• No pla ra. The dish's backbone in most pots is nam pla ra, the chunky fermented fish sauce. Plain fish sauce alone makes a polite copy — the fermented depth is what Isaan palates are checking for.
• Swapping in western mushrooms without adjusting. Chestnut or button mushrooms work in a pinch, but they are denser and wetter than straw mushrooms — roast them longer and drier, or the dip turns watery.
• Serving it warm as a side. Jaew is a room-temperature table dip, scooped with sticky rice and vegetables — not a hot mushroom sauté.
• Over-pounding. The mushrooms should be broken, not puréed. Cookpad is explicit: pound the aromatics fine, then add the mushrooms and mix — texture is part of the dish.

UK Ingredient Notes

• Straw mushrooms (เห็ดฟาง): tinned at every Thai and Chinese grocer; fresh at bigger Thai grocers in season. If substituting, chestnut mushrooms roasted dry work best.
• Nam pla ra (น้ำปลาร้า): bottles at Thai and Lao grocers — the chunky fermented kind, not clear fish sauce. If it intimidates, Cookpad's proof is that a single seasoning can carry the dish.
• Bird's eye chillies, shallots, garlic: standard supermarket and grocer items; the smaller Thai shallots roast better than round European ones.
• Karen chillies (พริกกะเหรี่ยง), for Kapook's market version: at Thai grocers when in season; bird's eyes substitute.
• Serve with sticky rice and steamed vegetables — the jaew is a dip, not a sauce for a main.

Sources

This recipe is translated from the following Thai-language sources. Where they disagree, we've said so.