← Nouns Cooking · Thai

Ingredients

• 500 g fatty pork mince (about 25% fat)
• 200 g cold cooked jasmine rice
• 10 cloves Garlic, finely pounded
• 1½ tsp Salt
• 1 tsp White pepper
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 1 tbsp Fish sauce
• 1½ metres of natural pork casing, soaked and rinsed
• 5 cm piece Ginger, cut into small cubes
• 4 Bird's eye chilli
• ¼ Cabbage, cut into wedges
• 3 tbsp roasted peanuts

Method

1. Knead the pork, rice, garlic, salt, pepper, sugar and fish sauce together with clean hands for 2–3 min, until sticky and well combined.
2. Tie one end of the casing, fit the other over a sausage funnel and fill firmly. Twist into 4 cm links or tie into little balls with string, then prick each link a few times.
3. Lay them on a rack over a tray, cover loosely and leave at cool room temperature (below 25°C / 77°F) until they smell pleasantly sour, about 1 day. In a warm kitchen, ferment them in the fridge for 3 days instead.
4. Grill over low charcoal or in a heavy pan over medium-low heat for 15–20 min, turning often, until the skins are golden and crisp and the centres are cooked through to 71°C (160°F).
5. Serve hot with ginger cubes, chillies, peanuts and crunchy cabbage, taking a bit of each with every bite.

Tips

• Safer at home: let the sausages sour in the fridge for 2–3 days instead of at room temperature, and always cook them through before eating.
• Fermented sausages are never eaten raw; always cook them through. Throw them out if they smell rotten rather than tangy or show coloured mould.
• For a quick fresh version, skip the fermenting and add 1 tbsp lime juice to the mix.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Hungry in Thailand ImportFood Simply Suwanee