Thai

Mi Krop

Name: Mi Krop
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 1 serving
Cuisine: Thai
Ingredients: 50 g dried rice vermicelli; 60 g firm tofu; 60 g raw prawns; 1 egg; 2 cloves garlic; 1 tbsp tamarind paste; 1.5 tbsp palm sugar; 1 tsp fermented soybean paste; 1 tsp fish sauce; 1 tsp white vinegar; 2 tbsp water; 2 cloves pickled garlic; 40 g bean sprouts; 15 g Chinese chives; 1 tbsp coriander leaves; 1 red bird's eye chilli; 1 wedge lime; 500 ml vegetable oil

Thailand's crisp-fried rice vermicelli tossed in a sticky sweet-sour tamarind and soybean sauce, with fried tofu, prawns and shreds of crisp egg, served with bean sprouts, Chinese chives and pickled garlic.

Lunch & dinner

40 min20 prep · 20 cookMedium770 kcalper serving

Method

Pull 50 g of dried rice vermicelli apart with your fingers into small loose tufts the size of a golf ball, keeping them dry - the noodles are fried straight from the packet and must never be soaked. Cut 60 g of tofu into 5 mm strips and pat thoroughly dry, and pat 60 g of peeled prawns dry too, or they will spit in the oil.
Make the sauce base: in a small bowl stir together 1 tbsp of tamarind paste, 1.5 tbsp of chopped palm sugar, 1 tsp of mashed fermented soybean paste, 1 tsp of fish sauce, 1 tsp of white vinegar and 2 tbsp of water. Taste - it should be aggressively sweet, then sour, then salty, since the crisp noodles carry no seasoning of their own.
Pour the oil into a wok to a depth of about 5 cm and heat to 190C - a single noodle dropped in should balloon instantly. Fry the noodle tufts one or two at a time for 3-5 seconds a side, turning once with a spider, until puffed, white and dry; lift out before they colour and drain on kitchen paper.