Thai cuisine · Dough, Pasta & Rice

Khao Pad Nam Prik Long Rua

Fried rice with a sweet-salty chili paste of tamarind and palm sugar, topped with a crisp fried egg.

Ingredients · for 4 servings

• 600 g cooked jasmine rice (from the day before)
• 4 eggs
• 4 shallots
• 4 cloves garlic
• 3 dried red chili peppers
• 2 tbsp dried shrimp
• 2 tbsp tamarind paste
• 2 tbsp palm sugar
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp shrimp paste (kapi)
• 5 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 cucumber

Instructions

1. Soak the dried chili peppers in hot water for 10 min., then squeeze out and roughly chop; peel and finely dice the shallots and garlic.
2. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and fry shallots, garlic, chili, and the dried shrimp for 4–5 min. over medium heat until golden and dry.
3. Pound the mixture with the shrimp paste in a mortar into a coarse paste, then simmer in the pan with tamarind paste, palm sugar, and fish sauce for 3–4 min. until a dark, syrupy chili paste forms.
4. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok, scatter in the loosened rice, and fry for 3 min., then fold in 3 tbsp of the chili paste and toss everything for another 2 min. until every grain is evenly colored.
5. In the remaining oil, fry the eggs one at a time over high heat into fried eggs with crisp, rippled edges and still-runny yolks, about 2 min. per egg.
6. Fill the rice into bowls, top each with a fried egg, and serve with thin cucumber slices and the remaining chili paste.