A rainy Sunday calls for possibly the most comforting of all comfort foods, a savoury Thai omelette served with rice and a chilli dipping sauce.
Quick and easy to make, I like it best made with a little ground pork and spring onion, but occasionally have it plain, when its simplicity is somehow also luxurious. For a more substantial veggie option, fry some sliced peppers and mushrooms in place of the meat.
I’d put the rice on to cook first so it’s ready to serve as soon as the omelette is cooked.
With that underway, make the nam prik sauce, which will keep in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to two weeks and goes with almost everything – plain rice, grilled meats, baked fish, noodle dishes and many, many more.
There are probably a million different variants of this sauce, so do adjust the lime juice, fish sauce or sugar to your own taste.
4 tablespoons fish sauce
juice of 1-2 limes
4-6 sliced birds eye chillies (today I used two green and then two normal red chillies as I didn’t have birds eye)
1-2 teaspoons sugar
2 cloves of garlic, very finely chopped
Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly to dissolve the sugar.
Note: to be honest, you can make an extremely good sauce with literally just fish sauce and some chopped chillies - and this is what I usually make as it really couldn't be any easier.
And now for the kai jeow. This makes one.
cooking oil
a little ground/minced pork (maybe 1-2 tbspn)
two eggs
fish sauce
soy sauce
one spring onion, chopped
white pepper
coriander
Heat a wok or frying pan and add quite a bit of oil, enough to cover the bottom of the pan.
When the oil is very hot add the pork if using and cook for two or three minutes.
While the meat cooks, break two eggs into a bowl and add a couple of dashes each of fish sauce and soy sauce, the chopped spring onion and a shake of white pepper.
Beat the egg mixture until frothy – you want as much air in it as possible – and then pour it into the very hot oil, where it will start to go fluffy.
Cook until brown and slightly crispy on one side, then turn and cook until the other side is browned too but the inside still soft. Just fold in half if you don’t want to try to flip it all at once. I tried and broke this one, but hey ho.
Make the rice look nice by packing it into a little plastic bowl (china doesn’t work for me, only the plastic one), putting the plate on top and turning it out.
Add the omelette on top, sprinkle with chopped coriander, and serve with the nam prikdipping sauce.
So is this the most comforting of all comfort foods?
Let me know what you think …
