Adventures in Thai Cooking & Travel
Limestone Water
Limestone Water (nahm bpoon daeng)
by
Kasma Loha-unchit
Text Copyright © 1995 & 2000 Kasma
Loha-unchit.
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See below for Recipe with Limestone Water.
Limestone Water (nahm bpoon daeng): A natural mineral water made with pink limestone is widely used in batters for fried foods and pastries as a key ingredient that promotes crispiness. It is also used to crisp up cucumbers for pickling and vegetables for salads.
To 
make
limestone water, empty the
contents of a small container of pink limestone, available from Thai and Southeast Asian
markets, into a two-quart jar and fill with water. Cover jar tightly with a lid and shake to
dissolve the limestone. Let stand 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the water has almost cleared. Use
the very faintly pink water with fine particles of suspended limestone dust in the recipes that
require this crisping agent.
Store the limestone and water remaining in the jar unrefrigerated in the pantry, adding more water and shaking the jar about an hour or so before it is needed again. One package of pink limestone will last you a very long time and keeps indefinitely. Discard when the solids settle in half an hour or less, indicating that the remaining particles are too coarse.
Pink limestone is also a main ingredient used in betal-nut chewing among traditional Southeast Asians unwilling to give up the practice of this once very popular pastime throughout China and Asia. Betal-nut chewing used to be a social activity and daily ritual engaged by people of all classes of society and was equivalent to tea time in England.
Text Copyright © 2000 Kasma Loha-unchit in Dancing Shrimp: Favorite Thai Recipes for Seafood. See pages 63 & 64.
This is just one of many listings in the "Alphabetical List of Ingredients" in chapter four (pages 49 to 73) of Dancing Shrimp: Favorite Thai Recipes for Seafood.
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Limestone Water (Nahm bpoon daeng): Limestone water is widely used in making Thai pastries and fried foods as a key ingredient that promotes crispness. It is also used for pickling or to crisp up vegetables for salads. To make limestone water, start out with limestone paste, available in small plastic containers from Thai and Southeast Asian markets. It is red or white in color and smells just like the mineral limestone; use the red for this recipe. Empty the contents of a small container into a two-quart jar. Fill with water, cover tightly with a lid and shake to dissolve the limestone. Allow to stand about 1 to 1-1/2 hours, or until the water has almost cleared, before using. Store the limestone unrefrigerated in the jar for future use, each time adding more water and shaking the jar about an hour or so before using. A package will last you a very long time and keeps indefinitely.
Text Copyright © 1995 Kasma Loha-unchit in It Rains Fishes, see page 120.
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Recipe with Limestone Water :
Dessert
Grilled Coconut Cakes (Kanom Paeng Jee)
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Text Copyright © Kasma Loha-unchit, 1995 in It Rains Fishes, and 2000 in Dancing Shrimp. All rights reserved.
Photographs Copyright © 2002 Dave Bayer. All rights reserved.
All material on this website is Copyright © 1995 to 2008 Kasma Loha-unchit. All rights reserved.
For comments, feedback or questions, contact Kasma.
Page added 1 August 2002. Last updated 25 October 2002.