Archive for February, 2010
what you need:
2 1/2 cups of rice
1 cup of ground pork
7 kaffir lime leaves minced
2 cloves of garlic minced
3 shallots minced
4 Tbsp parsley diced
4 Tbsp green onion diced
1 1/2 Tbsp red curry paste
2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup grated coconut
1 egg
dried chili peppers
2 rolls of som moo (cured pork), if you can’t find this at your asian market you can add ham or spam and also add some lime to the dish to substitute for some sourness. if you don’t want to add meat, just don’t! add vegetables instead 🙂
enough oil to fry rice balls (about 1 1/2 to 2 inches high in the pot) and chili peppers
what to do:
1. After your rice is finished cooking, let the rice cool down enough to handle with hands.
2. While you’re waiting for this you can also cook your pork in a pan and season it with salt, after cooking for about 2 minutes let it cool enough to handle. if the pork is a little pink still its ok, you’re going to fry it with the rice.
3. After both ingredients cool down throw them both in a bowl. Heat your oil up to medium high. Add the garlic, shallots, grated coconut, lime leaves, sugar, salt, and curry paste with rice and pork. Mix everything well so there are no chunks of rice. Crack the egg into this mixture and mix. Add half of both the green onion and parsley in last and form about two inch balls by packing the rice by cupping your hands. This makes about 9 rice balls. (have a bowl of water on the side to dip your hands in so that the rice does not get stuck on your hands)
4. Once the oil is hot enough, fry the rice balls till they turn golden brown (about 5-7 minutes).
5. While your rice balls fry you can clean your lettuce and break them into individual pieces and also clean your mint. You will use the lettuce to hold your rice mixture and also garnish it with mint.
6. After your rice balls finish cooking, throw your dried chilis in to fry for a bit. Just dont let them burn! Let your rice balls cool.
7. break apart your som moo. you can add it in as is or cook it for a bit. i like to cook it a bit so the meat isn’t so sour but it’s your choice. if you’re adding ham or spam just dice them up and cook these in a frying pan.
8. add the broken up som moo (ham or spam) into a bowl along with the fried rice balls that you have broken up so there are no large pieces of fried rice left. mix well. top with leftover parsley and green onion. you may also top with toasted crushed peanuts if you like. serve with your lettuce, mint and chilis on the side. if you used ham or spam, serve with a lime wedge.
(for the above picture i used fresh thai chilis to top it off with because i couldn’t find my dried ones. if you don’t have whole dried chilis just used fresh or crushed red chili peppers)
make your own shabu shabu at home!
broth: i know alot of people just use water for a healthier option or just chicken broth but i love some added flaver. for my broth i used 1 part chicken broth mixed with the same amount of water. one large spoon of miso paste, two large spoons of spicy korean soybean paste, about a large spoon of oyster sauce, half a chopped round onion, 2 cloves of garlic, and some salt and pepper. mix that all up, bring to boil and simmer for 30 minutes.
sides: you can use whatever you want. for our meat items we had cow tongue, beef flank, chuck, meatballs and fish cake. for the meats, try to get them sliced thin. if you can’t buy it thinly sliced than you can always freeze the meat a bit and take it out to slice yourself. you can use almost any vegetables you want like won bok, enoki mushrooms, beansprouts, and green onions. the noodles we used were bean thread (long rice) but you can use anything you like. mochi is also a nice addition but we forgot to buy some at the market. also, cook some rice to eat with your meat.
sauces: the more sauces the better for me! these sauces are used for you to dip your meats in. there are recipes out there to make your own sauces but i just prefer to buy them premade. our favorite sauce is the sesame paste which is the tan colored one in the middle of the sauce dishes because it sticks nicely to your meat. i also love ponzu with some freshly cut chilis.
( i’ll add a tutorial on how to make the heart sushi on my next post. )