Thai cuisine · Dough, Pasta & Rice

Khao Yam Pak Tai

Southern Thai rice salad: cooked rice tossed with raw herbs, toasted coconut, and dark budu fish sauce.

Ingredients · for 4 servings

• 250 g jasmine rice
• 100 g grated coconut
• 2 tbsp dried shrimp
• 2 stalks lemongrass
• 4 kaffir lime leaves
• 150 g green beans
• 1/2 white cabbage
• 1 carrot
• 1 handful mint
• 4 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp palm sugar
• 3 limes

Instructions

1. Wash the jasmine rice, cook in 400 ml water for 12 min., then spread on a tray to cool completely so the grains stay loose.
2. Toast the grated coconut in a dry pan over medium heat for 4–5 min., stirring constantly, until golden brown, and remove immediately from the pan; toast the dried shrimp the same way for 2 min. and roughly crush.
3. For the budu sauce, simmer fish sauce, palm sugar, the juice of 2 limes, and 100 ml water with 1 bruised lemongrass stalk and 2 kaffir lime leaves uncovered for 6–8 min. until the sauce is lightly syrupy, then cool and remove the aromatics.
4. Shave the white cabbage and carrot into paper-thin strips, cut the green beans into fine rounds, and slice the remaining lemongrass and remaining lime leaves into hair-thin strips.
5. Layer rice, vegetables, herb strips, mint leaves, toasted coconut, and dried shrimp loosely in a wide bowl without mixing.
6. At the table, pour the cold budu sauce over, toss everything thoroughly, and serve with wedges of the third lime, warm or cold.