Is My Blog Burning XVI: Son-In-Law Eggs

Are those deep fried eggs in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

Hello, peoples!  We’re really excited to be joining in on our first IMBB, started over a year ago by Alberto over at Il Forno … so thankee.

Eggs… versatile, wonderful, tasty, occasionally gross when mishandled.  We eat a fair amount of eggs here in the Pants household, what with Mr. Pants being a vegetarian/not vegan. 

He thought for a while about what kind of eggs to use for this is my blog burning (Ostrich?  Dog?) and what to do with them (Scramble?  Chug?) and eventually decided to go Thai.

We like our dinners with a generous helping of thinly veiled threats of bodily harm.  This dish is called Khai Luuk Kheuy or Son-in-law eggs.  When doing some research on the recipe, we came across several stories as to how they got their name.  One, however, was clearly the best and therefore, in our minds, obviously the true one. 

It goes like this:  a young man in a newly wed couple is being less than chivalrous to his bride.  His behavior does not go unnoticed.  So on a visit to his new mother-in-law’s place, she puts him in check by serving this dish.  Her innuendo is clear.  Straighten up and get some ack-right or your, let’s say, marital tackle, is going to be replacing these suspiciously similarly sized eggs the next time I make this recipe.  Oh yeah.  You do not want to mess with that.

Luckily for us, we just wanted dinner. 

I must say that I’ve never had anything quite like this dish.  Not being Scottish, I have never had the urge to fry an already boiled egg.  Boy was I missing out, because this stuff is seriously tasty.  While some of the flavor components might seem a bit foreign to me, Mr. Whitey McAnglo, all together this meal is easy to make and well worth the effort.

Start by boiling six eggs from an animal of your choosing and then peel them and set them aside to cool.  You should under hard boil your eggs by a few minutes since you’ll be cooking them again later.

Then mix together about a third of a cup each of tamarind juice, palm sugar, and fish sauce, then adjust it to taste.  I used more tamarind because I love that bright twang it has.  Add it all to a sauce pan and let it simmer until it reduces to a nice shiny syrup. It will seem too salty at first, but keep in mind that it’ll be seasoning all of the eggs and whatnot.

Technical Note: You can get the juice by steeping 2 or 3 peeled tamarind in a half cup of hot water and then straining out the seeds. If you can’t find it fresh you can use tamarind paste instead. If you can’t find palm sugar you can use dark brown sugar (maybe with a touch of honey).  If you can’t find fish sauce then you’re just up Poop Creek because you really need the fish sauce.

Meanwhile, mince a couple of big shallots, three or four cloves of garlic, and four to ten thai chilies depending on your tolerance for chemical burn.  (Here at the Pants household numbness and burning are not cues to head to the doctor, but rather signs of a successful meal.) 

Ok, now the fun part.  Get out your favorite wok and pour in a couple of inches of whatever frying oil strikes your fancy.  Get that bad boy hot.  You want it to be about 350-360ºF.  Grab your eggs (no funny business now) and carefully lay them in the oil.  Leave them alone for a couple minutes until you see a nice golden brown line just above the oil level.  Then turn them over and leave them for a minute or two more.  When they’re brown and kind of wrinkly all over, take them out to drain on paper towels or a cooling rack.

Now pour off all but a couple teaspoons of the oil (or you can do this in a different pan if you don’t feel like juggling a wok full of scalding lipids – babies.) Throw in the shallot/garlic/chili mix and fry it up just until some of the pieces start to get real crispy like.

Slice the eggs in half, pour on the luscious sauce, spoon on the shallot stuff and garnish it all with cilantro and more freakin’ peppers!  Good Lawd.  Serve it with rice and maybe some Asiany greens and that is one threat to my manhood that I will eat any day of the week.

To check out the other great IMBB submissions peruse here, and thanks to Viv at Seattle Bon Vivant for hosting this edition of Is My Blog Burning.

Mme. and L. Pants

Comments

[auntie]

totally cool.... fried boiled eggs..never woulda thought of that !!

where will all the entries for the IMBB be listed?

i sound like Homer S. "hmmmmmmmm......eeeggggss......"

[Girlie]

Thanks! I'm glad you like how they turned out. The rest of the IMBB posts should be up by the 29th, on seattle bon vivant. (seattlebonvivant.typepad.com)