Khao tom

Cooked rice dropped into hot stock so the grains stay whole, not boiled down into porridge.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains chicken stock, fish sauce, pork.

Ingredients

• 500 g cooked jasmine rice, cold
• 300 g minced pork
• 1.2 litres pork or chicken stock
• 40 g ginger, in fine matchsticks
• 8 garlic cloves, finely sliced
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 0.5 teaspoon white pepper
• 4 tablespoons oil
• 4 spring onions, sliced
• 1 bunch coriander
• 2 tablespoons preserved radish, chopped

Method

1. THE GRAINS STAY WHOLE. That is the difference between this and a jok, which is rice boiled until it breaks down into porridge. Here cold cooked rice goes into hot stock for a few minutes only, and you can still see every grain in the bowl.
2. So the rice must be COLD and already cooked, ideally a day old. Warm rice keeps absorbing and will be porridge within ten minutes whatever you do.
3. Rinse the cold rice in a sieve under the tap and shake it dry, to wash off the loose surface starch that would otherwise cloud the broth.
4. Fry the sliced garlic in the oil over a low heat until pale gold, 3 minutes, then lift it out onto paper. This is the topping and it is not optional.
5. Roll the pork into small balls, 2 cm, and drop them into the simmering stock. 4 minutes, until they float and are firm.
6. Ginger and fish sauce in.
7. RICE IN LAST, and give it 3 minutes only. Taste a grain: it should be hot and separate, not swollen.
8. White pepper off the heat.
9. Fried garlic, its oil, spring onion, coriander and preserved radish over each bowl. Serve at once -- it thickens in the pot by the minute.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Thailand · All recipes