La tiang

A lace of egg drizzled from the fingers into a hot pan, folded round a sweet-salty filling.

Pork, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains fish sauce, pork.

Ingredients

the nets

6 eggs
0.25 teaspoon salt
oil, for the pan

the filling

300 g minced pork
80 g peanuts, crushed
4 shallots, finely chopped
4 coriander roots, pounded
3 tablespoons palm sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons oil

to finish

1 bunch coriander leaves
2 long red chillies, in strips

Method

THE NET IS DRIZZLED FROM THE FINGERS, and there is no tool that does it better. Beat the eggs, STRAIN them, then dip your fingers in and let the egg run off them in threads while you move your hand across the pan in one direction, then the other. A squeeze bottle gives thick lines; fingers give a true lace.
STRAIN THE EGG, twice. Any chalaza or unbeaten white blocks the thread and leaves a blob in the middle of the net.
A wide flat pan over a LOW heat, wiped with the barest film of oil. Too hot and the first threads are brown and brittle before the last are laid.
The net sets in about 45 seconds. It should be matt, pale yellow and just lifting at the edge -- no colour at all.
Slide it off onto a plate and make the next. They stack with paper between.
Filling: fry the shallots and coriander root in the oil 3 minutes, pork in 5 minutes, then the palm sugar and fish sauce and cooked down 5 minutes until sticky and nearly dry.
Peanuts and white pepper in at the end. Cool completely -- warm filling tears a net.
IT IS MEANT TO BE DISTINCTLY SWEET against the plain egg. That contrast is the dish.
A spoonful of filling in the middle of each net, a coriander leaf and a strip of chilli laid on it, then the four sides folded in to make a small parcel.
Serve at room temperature, folded side down.

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