Food and Cooking in Thai TV Dramas, Love Destiny, 17th Century Siam, and Crispy Noodle-Wrapped Pork Dumplings
Author: 
Recipe type: Appetizer
Cuisine: Thai
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 48 pieces
 
Ingredients
  • 4 large cloves garlic
  • 1 teaspoon whole white or black peppercorns
  • 2 medium cilantro roots, finely chopped, or 2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro stems
  • 1 pound ground pork
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce
  • 1 large egg white, beaten lightly with a fork
  • 12 ounces fresh very thin wheat noodles or 6 ounces dried noodles, soaked in lukewarm tap water until pliable, drained, and blotted dry
  • Vegetable oil for deep-frying
  • A pair of wooden chopsticks
  • Thai sweet chili sauce for serving
Instructions
  1. Grind the garlic, peppercorns, and cilantro roots into a fine paste. Mix the paste into the ground pork along with the fish sauce and egg white. Use your hand to knead and squeeze the pork mixture until it feels sticky—the same consistency of Italian or breakfast bulk sausage. Cover and chill 30 minutes.
  2. Form the pork mixture into small balls, each measuring just a tad shy of an inch in diameter. Be sure to roll each one between your palms to smooth the surface and form a tight ball. If the balls are loosey goosey, you'll have a very hard time wrapping them with the noodles and keeping them intact while deep-frying them.
  3. Grab 3-4 strands of noodles, line them up, and wrap them around one pork ball, pushing them lightly into the surface of the pork as you go to secure them. Go around the pork ball a few times until you get what looks like a skein of yarn that isn't too disheveled or or too neat. Tuck in the ends of the noodle strands and place the dumpling on a large platter seam side down. Do this with the remaining pork balls. Yup, you'll be sitting here for a while.
  4. Pour enough of the oil into a wok so it measure about 2 inches deep. Set the wok on medium heat. Place a paper towel-lined tray next to the stove.
  5. When the oil is hot (but not to the point where it smokes), use the wooden chopsticks to carry one dumpling at a time to the oil. Keep squeezing the dumplings lightly with the chopsticks even after it has gone into the oil; this is to keep the noodle strands in place. Do this for 4-5 seconds, then let that dumpling go. Repeat with another dumpling and keep going until you run of dumplings to fry (yup, you'll be standing here for a while). Don't overcrowd the wok, though, and don't use high heat (otherwise the noodles will burn before the pork inside is cooked).
  6. Transfer the dumplings that has turned golden brown to the prepared tray to cool to just a little warmer than room temperature.
  7. Serve the dumplings as an appetizer with Thai sweet chili sauce on the side (or a mixture of Thai sweet chili sauce and Thai (not American) sriracha as I've done here).
Recipe by SheSimmers at https://shesimmers.com/2018/04/17th-century-siam-love-destiny-thai-drama-crispy-noodles-pork-dumplings.html