Northern Thai Steamed Rice with Pork Blood (ข้าวกั๊นจิ๊น)
Author: 
Recipe type: Main Course or Appetizer
Cuisine: Thai
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • ¼ cup pork blood
  • ½ stalk fresh lemongrass (you can't use dried or powdered lemongrass)
  • 1½ teaspoons salt
  • 2 cups, packed, cooked jasmine rice (preferably somewhat dry and cold)
  • ⅓ pound (somewhat fatty) ground pork
  • 4 large cloves garlic, peeled and chopped finely
  • 2 tablespoons lard or vegetable oil
  • 12 sheets of banana leaves, measuring 8"x4"
  • 6 toothpicks
  • ¼ cup chopped green onions
  • ¼ cup roughly chopped cilantro
Instructions
  1. Put the pork blood in a small bowl.
  2. Smash the lemongrass with the handle of a knife or a pestle until bruised. Cut it into smaller pieces and add them to the pork blood bowl. Use a spoon to press and squeeze the lemongrass pieces so they release the juice and scent into the blood. This should take about a minute
  3. Press as much liquid out of the lemongrass pieces before removing them from the blood and discard them.
  4. Stir the salt into the blood and set it aside.
  5. Put the rice in a medium mixing bowl. Add the pork to it and mix by hand until well blended.
  6. Add the blood to the rice-pork mixture; mix well with a spoon.
  7. Place two sheets of banana leaves on top of each other, shiny side down.
  8. Place ⅙ of the rice mixture right in the middle. Form a packet as instructed in the post and secure it with a toothpick. Repeat until you end up with six packets.
  9. Steam the packets until the pork and pork blood are thoroughly cooked. Open one packet after 20 minutes to see if it's cooked. When cooked, the rice becomes stickier, and the color will be brownish with a tinge of dark maroon. 20 minutes may not be enough to get you there. The steaming time depends largely on your steaming vessel, but 30 minutes should suffice.
  10. When the rice is steaming, make fried garlic. Place the large or vegetable oil in a cold 6- or 8-inch skillet. Add the garlic and stir it around with a spatula. Set the skillet in medium heat and cook gently, stirring occasionally (the garlic browns first around the edges, so you need to stir it in), until the garlic is the color of light honey, about 8-10 minutes. Leave the garlic to cool in the skillet; the residual heat will darken it a bit further so once it's cool, it is thoroughly golden brown, which is what we want).
  11. When the rice is cooked, let it cool down to slightly warmer than room temperature. To serve, open a packet, top it with ⅙ of the fried garlic and its oil, sprinkle the ⅙ of the chopped green onions and cilantro.
Recipe by SheSimmers at https://shesimmers.com/2015/04/northern-thai-steamed-rice-with-pork-blood-%e0%b8%82%e0%b9%89%e0%b8%b2%e0%b8%a7%e0%b8%81%e0%b8%b1%e0%b9%8a%e0%b8%99%e0%b8%88%e0%b8%b4%e0%b9%8a%e0%b8%99-happy-songkran.html