Nam khao (Lao crispy rice salad)

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5 from 2 votes

Nam khao (Lao crispy rice salad)

This is not your typical rice salad, but it so much more - a delicious range of flavors and textures.

Prep Time10

Cook Time20

Total Time30

Course: Lunch or main

Cuisine: Laos

Servings: approx

Calories: 429kcal

Author: Caroline's Cooking

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Ingredients

For rice balls

⅔ cup jasmine rice
1 cup water
1 tablespoon egg (1 tablespoon is approx ½ egg)
⅓ cup shredded fresh coconut you can use frozen, defrosted if you don't have fresh
1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoon makrut lime leaves kaffir lime leaves, very finely chopped
vegetable or other neutral oil for frying

To serve

¼ cup chopped cilantro coriander
¼ cup green onion spring onion, thinly sliced (¼ cup is around 3-4 onions)
2 tablespoon roasted unsalted peanuts
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 teaspoon fish sauce
½ small lettuce approx - for serving
fried red chili to garnish

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Rinse the rice well in cold water, agitating the rice with your hands to get as much starch out as you can. Drain then place in pot with the water. Cover, bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the rice has absorbed all of the water and is cooked through.
Transfer the rice to a bowl and let it cool to at least lukewarm, but ideally room temperature. Meanwhile, prepare other ingredients - very finely chop the lime leaves and measure out the other additions to the rice. You can also chop the cilantro and green onions to add later.
Once the rice has cooled, add the egg, coconut, curry paste, sugar and lime leaves. Mix everything together so well combined but without chopping or mashing the rice - by hand is in many ways the easiest.
Take handfuls of the rice and press it together by cupping your hands to form a slightly flattened ball. Repeat with the rest of the rice - you should make 7 or 8 flattened balls.
Warm some oil over in a small - medium skillet/frying pan around ⅔ inch/2cm deep over a medium-high heat. Test the heat with a grain of rice to see if it sizzles.
Add around 3 - 4 of the rice balls and cook for around 6 - 10 minutes in total, turning halfway through so that they are crisp and golden on both sides.
Once cooked, drain on kitchen paper to remove excess oil.
Place the rice balls in a wide bowl and break them up into chunks with your hands. Add the cilantro, green onion, peanuts, lime juice and fish sauce and mix everything together so well distributed.
Serve with fried chili as a garnish and lettuce leaves on the side to use as scoops to eat the crispy rice salad.

Video

Notes

As mentioned in the post above, traditionally this includes cured pork (som moo/naem) - if you have some and want to add, use around ⅓ cup (80ml) for one quantity of this recipe and add along with the cilantro, peanuts etc.

As described above, and in the video, I suggest shallow frying the rice balls but you can also deep fry them if you prefer. Either way, you are looking for crisp and golden on the outside, not so crisp they become very brown as it can become harder to eat and not as good flavor-wise.

Nutrition