Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
3 tbsp cooking oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
100g ginger, thinly sliced
300g minced pork
White pepper, to taste
2 tsp light soya sauce
1 cup jasmine rice, rinsed
3 cups water
For the stock:
450g pork bones
2 litres water
50g coriander roots
A pinch of salt
A dash of white pepper
3 ½ tsp Thai fish sauce
Light soya sauce, to taste
Coriander leaves, to garnish
DIRECTIONS
1 Heat the cooking oil. Fry one-fifth of both the garlic and ginger over medium heat until brown and crisp. Remove the garlic, ginger and oil from the heat and set aside.
2 Season the pork with the pepper, soya sauce and the remaining garlic. Set aside.
3 Bring the rice and water to the boil in a pot. Cover the pot partially and simmer over low heat for 15min, stirring occasionally.
4 In a separate pot, bring the stock ingredients to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 40min, skimming the surface regularly to remove the scum.
5 To make the pork balls, scoop teaspoonfuls of the pork mixture into the stock. Bring it to the boil before lowering the heat and simmering for 10min. Season with the fish sauce and a dash of light soya sauce.
6 Add the pork balls and the stock to the porridge, then stir in the remaining ginger.
7 Top with the fried garlic-ginger oil and coriander leaves. Add pepper to taste.
Ron Poh is the owner of Spicy Thai-Thai Cafe at #01-35, 115 Aljunied Avenue 2, tel: 6747-8558.
This article was originally published in Simply Her October 2014.