Appetizers Recipes - Son-in-law Eggs Recipe

Ingredients

• 30ml/2 tbsp vegetable oil

• 6 shallots, thinly sliced

• 6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

• 6 fresh red chilies, sliced

• oil, for deep-frying

• 6 hard-boiled eggs, shelled

• salad leaves, to serve

• sprigs of fresh coriander (cilantro), to garnish

For the sauce:

• 75g/3oz/6 tbsp palm sugar (jaggery) or muscovado (brown) sugar

• 75ml/5 tbsp fish sauce

• 90ml/6 tbsp tamarind juice

Serves 4-6

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Method:

1. To make the sauce, put the sugar, fish sauce and tamarind juice in a pan. Bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

2. Taste and add more sugar, fish sauce or tamarind juice, if needed. Transfer the sauce to a bowl and set it aside.

3. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan and cook the shallots, garlic and chilies for 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.

4. Heat the oil in a deep-fryer or wok to 190°C/375°F or until a cube of bread, added to the oil, browns in about 45 seconds.

5. Deep-fry the eggs in the hot oil for 3-5 minutes, until golden brown. Remove and drain well on kitchen paper.

6. Cut the eggs in quarters and arrange them on a bed of leaves. Drizzle with the sauce and sprinkle over the shallot mixture.

7. Garnish with coriander sprigs and serve immediately.

Note: The fascinating name for this dish comes from a story about a prospective bridegroom who very much wanted to impress his future mother-in-law and devised a new recipe based on the only dish he knew how to make - boiled eggs.