Thailand’s breakfast for champions.

A comfort food, the soup makes a wonderful meal. Besides being a popular breakfast item in Thailand (hold the bacon, give me pork balls!), it is also their version of chicken soup for the days when one is under the weather.

Chef’s tip: Keep any excess garlic oil in the fridge.

Ingredients:

Garlic oil:
¼ cup canola oil
6 cloves garlic, finely minced
Meatballs:
½ lb ground pork
½ teaspoon salt
A pinch of white pepper
Soup:
6 cups chicken broth
3-4 Tablespoons fish sauce
1½ Tablespoons preserved radish, soaked, chopped
2 cups lightly packed cooked jasmine rice

¼ cup green onions, white parts only, finely chopped
¼ cup, cilantro, finely chopped
½ teaspoon ground white pepper

Preparing the garlic oil
1.    In a small pot, heat the oil and garlic and fry till the garlic is light golden brown.  Remove from heat and it will continue to cook to golden brown. Set aside.
Preparing the meatballs
2.    Mix together the meatball ingredients (pork, salt and pepper)
Preparing the soup
3.    In a large pot, bring soup ingredients (chicken stock, fish sauce, radish and rice) to boil
4.    Grab a small handful of the pork mixture and gently squeeze out a small amount of the meat between your index finger and thumb.  Using a spoon, scoop out the meatball and drop into the soup.  When all the meat is done, boil for another 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.
5.    Scatter the green onions and cilantro.  Add all the garlic oil and white pepper.

Serves: 4

Tags: meatballs, soup, Thai