The is a rice dish that has a perfect balance in flavor, the spice, sweet, sour, savory, and aroma, you can get all of it in just one single taste from this menu. The look and smell of it may not appeal to you when you first saw it because of its color is based for shrimp paste and it has shrimp paste strong smell. But the condiments help this dish to be a lot easier to eat, they help balance everything and make it more mild.
The origin of shrimp paste fried rice.
Its origin traces back to the royal kitchens of Rattanakhosin era. During the time shrimp paste was consider too pungent for refined palates, however palace chefs found many ways to adapt, develop and elevate this strong ingredient by balancing it with sweetness, acidity, and texture. The result of this was a dish for royalty: fried rice infused with shrimp paste, served with several condiments like sweet pork, green mango , shallots, chilies, omlete strips, long beans, and lime. Over the time shrimp paste fried rice left the palace and became one of the most beloved street food.
Basic ingredients
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Left-over rice (at least one night)
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Shrimp paste
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Oil
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Egg
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Pork belly or sholder
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Palm sugar
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Soy sauce
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Dark soy sauce
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Shallots
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Chilies
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Lime
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Long beans
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Green mango
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Oyster sauce
How to cook?
- We start by cooking sweet pork, first we put oil in the pan then add shallots, after it starts giving nice aroma add pork belly.
- Season it with oyster sauce, palm sugar, soy sauce, and dark soy sauce then stir it together.
- Add water and let your sweet pork simmer for 10 minutes, after your pork belly starts to feel tender and it’s dry out put it to rest.
4. Now we make our fired rice, wait until the oil is hot then we add shrimp paste to the pan and stir until it smells nice, then add rice and turn to high heat. Cook until it’s perfectly mixed.
5. Put the fried rice in a dish and serve all the condiments
To eat shrimp fried rice like a local you will need to mix everything and get all of it in one bite, starting with squeezing the lime over the rice and in mango, chili, and everything. Mix all together and eat, each bite should feel a perfect mix of salty, sweet, spicy, and sour.
It’s easy to find, since this has become one of the most common street menus now. You can find it at street stalls, markets, food courts, or luxury restaurants.
Shrimp fried rice is the dish that proves that even some of the simplest ingredients can become incredibly delicious and beautiful dish if we just have a little creativity and courage to try something new. But to make all that happen you need to learn how to balance and care for every dish you make.
