Sakhou ngat sai is a popular lettuce wrap dish eaten as a snack. The balls are brushed with garlic oil and served with fried dried chilies, fresh cilantro and lettuce leaves.
For 4 persons
Ingredients
400g small tapioca pearls
250g ground pork
1 tablespoon of fish sauce
2 tablespoons of palm sugar
2 tablespoons of chopped shallots
1 tablespoon of chopped garlic
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
3 tablespoons striped sweet turnip
2 tablespoons of crushed unsalted peanuts
4 tablespoons of garlic oil
fried dried chilies
10 sprigs of cilantro
1 lettuce
Method
Soak the tapioca pearls in cold water for 30 min.
In a non-stick pan, sauté the garlic and shallots in oil over high heat for 2 minutes. Add the pork, sugar, fish sauce and turnip. Reduce the heat and cook for 15 minutes or until the meat is well caramelized. Add the peanuts, mix well and allow to cool.
Form into balls about 2.5 cm in diameter.
Drain the tapioca pearls.
Oil your hands. Form a thin tapioca cake on your hand, place a meatball on the cake and close your palm so that the meatball is completely covered with tapioca. Roll gently between your hands to form a ball. Place the balls in a steam basket lined with baking paper - make a few holes in the baking paper.
Steam for 20 minutes.
Brush the balls with garlic oil before serving. Recipe on video here.
“Striped sweet turnip can be found in Asian supermarkets. An easy way to make your garlic oil is to buy fried garlic in an Asian supermarket, mix it with vegetable oil and let infuse an hour beforehand.”
