Sawaddee ka welcome to hot Thai Kitchen today's recipe is something called kao gaeng tod now
tod means deep-fry and kao gaeng is the type of restaurant where you basically get a plate
of rice and you can choose from a variety of different dishes like curries and stir fries
and whatnot and it'll go on top of your rice now you can find these restaurants in the food court
on the street everywhere the idea behind this appetizer is to combine the rice and that item
into this bite-sized sort of fun appetizer that'll be great for a party so today we're making a green
curry flavored one but you can take this idea and turn almost any of my recipe into your own little
couch gang pot let's get started so the rice for these rice balls is a mixture of jasmine
rice and sticky rice so we get that chewiness from the sticky rice it will also help the rice
balls clump together better three parts jasmine rice one part sticky rice now this is Thai sticky
rice which is usually labeled at the store as glutinous rice or Thai sweet rice okay so I'm
going to mix it rinse this rice a couple of times and then make sure on your last rinse you really
drain off all the liquid because we don't want to have too much liquid in this rice now I'm
going to cook this rice at the ratio of one part rice to one part water which is less than what
you would normally do but remember that sticky rice doesn't take as much water and also we're
going to be pouring a bunch of curry on top this rice so we really want to make sure there isn't
too much moisture in there gonna stick this in my rice cooker and that's it if you recall from
my green curry episode what we did over there to sort of intensify the green color without having
to add more paste because it can get a little too spicy is we're going to make a basil puree so I've
got some coconut milk here and I'm going to add some Thai basil leaves I love the stick blender
and that's it now we've got delicious green basil juice so I've got some coconut milk here which I'm
going to bring to a boil and I'm going to add my green curry paste and I'm just using store-bought
paste here if you don't want to make it too spicy maybe two tablespoons or if you're not making
green curry you're using another kind of curry it tends to be a little less spicy you just want
to get the green curry to be thick unlike when I make actual curry you don't need to wait until the
coconut oil breaks away from this mixture because it becomes a little bit greasy like that and it's
a little harder to form the balls when it's greasy so now I'm going to add my ground turkey normally
I would use ground chicken but I couldn't find any so I've got ground turkey whatever whatever
ground meat you don't even have to add any meat at all but if you're not going to add some meat
I would definitely cut down on the seasoning a little bit so it's really important you don't
have any big chunks of turkey or chicken or whatever meat you're using because if you've
got big chunks you're going to have a hard time forming rice balls so now that we've got no more
big chunks a little bit of sugar to cut the salt and some fish sauce now again when you're working
with store-bought curry paste oh wow it's getting spicy in here be careful with the fish sauce some
brands are really salty so make sure you add maybe half of it and then you can taste them
adjust in the end okay that's good I'm going to go in with our coconut basil juice there you go
and then bring that to a boil I'm going to add my kaffir lime leaves which I chopped very very
finely as finely as you can because you don't want any big pieces they're really chewy and
fibrous very very small and that's it now the rice is done I'm going to pour the curry sauce over the
rice mmm what I'm also going to add is what I call jewel diced bell pepper so you want to take
some bell peppers and slice off a thin layer of the inner membrane and then finally finally dice
it so you get these little jewel cuts so it looks festive you know like in red nice and festive but
if I make these to bay they will interfere with the ball forming when we go to form the balls in
fact anything that you ask you want it to be very very small that's why I'm using ground chicken if
you've seen my mango and sticky rice video that the concept is the same so you let the rice steep
in the sauce and the rice is going to absorb all that liquid after a while it will become sort of
more solidified and sticky but you want to do this when your rice is still hot because if it's cold
it's not going to absorb the sauce very well okay so now taste and adjust seasoning spot-on so what
you want to do at this point is to really pack it if you pack it tight now when we go to form the
balls a little bit later once it's cool the rice will already be quite tight together and you'll
have less squeezing and forming to do it'll be so much easier you can just pack it right into
the rice cooker if you want I just wanted you to sort of see it better tight as you can so now you
want to let this cool a little bit till about room temperature it can be a little bit warm once it's
cold the fat in the coconut milk will solidify a little bit it'll be so much easier all right
ball forming time no my favourite portion control tool is this dish herb okay so I'm going to go in
with one number forty scoop which is about a tablespoon and a half form these into balls so
I start with my my palm like this and press with my other finger to make sure it's really tight
and then now that sort of misshapen you generally try to nudge it into a ball I'll give you a little
tip the bigger the balls the less work it becomes because there's less to do so there so that's one
rice ball and now you repeat now we're going to coat our rice balls in breadcrumbs but instead of
doing the three step breading the flour the egg the breadcrumbs what you're going to do just to
we're going to smoosh the eggs and the flour into one makes it so much easier so I've got
some all-purpose flour here and to this I'm going to add some water and an egg it's already beaten
to season this a little bit because we want the coating to also be seasoned just a touch of fish
sauce and just get this mixed up into a smooth batter at this point you want to check to see if
it's too thick like this is a little too thick if I dip the rice balls it's going to just be
just you know smothered in all this batter what you want is just a thin coating for your rice
balls a little bit of water there we go so when I lift my fork you should just run freely like this
so here are my rice ball you're simply going to dip and lift and let it dribble a little bit and
then straight into the panko now note here's a tip wet hand stays wet dry hand stays dry so my panko
hand never dips inside the egg and my egg hand never goes in the panko that is how you prevent
a gunk of panko and egg on your finger escape you keep them separate it would be quite clean
so I've got my oil at 350 degree Fahrenheit and it's very simple you drop them and let
them go and these are only going to take two minutes and the reason why these are great
party appetizers is you can bread them ahead of time keep them in the fridge and on your party
day bring them out and fry them when you're ready to surf or even better you can freeze
them so get them breaded and freeze them just make sure you thaw them first before you fry
them because otherwise the inside will be too cold by the time the outside is done in between
batches you want to go in and sort of get rid of these breadcrumb bits because otherwise they'll
continue to burn in the oil and that's how you ruin your oil quality so if you've got
a mesh skimmer like this look how cute they are now they are very hot right out of the fryer so
make sure you let them cool a little bit before you let your guests go at them I know it's gonna
be hard but please don't burn yourself mmm it's just like eating rice with green curry but it's
crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside and the sticky rice makes it just a little bit
chewier but not too much so it's not too heavy and so good I promise you you put these out
two minutes they are gone and they can be made in advance they're easily reheated they I mean
what food could be more perfect so the recipe as always is on hot side kitchen comm when you
make these send me a photo on Facebook Twitter or Instagram and oh if you haven't subscribed
the show please do so right here and I will see you next time for you delicious right