When I was a child, I loved eating my grandma’s fried chicken wings (and still do). I would pair it up with sticky rice, maybe a little seasoning sauce, and I was good — I didn’t need anything else. My family would often “trick” me into eating other dishes just by saying it was chicken. Apparently, I was gullible enough to believe them even if the dish clearly didn’t look like it had chicken at all. The moment I took a bite of some kind of steamed or boiled vegetable, I would instantly gag.
Suffice it to say, I was a picky eater. Even when the dish was sour chicken soup, I would mainly eat the chicken and dip sticky rice in the broth, avoiding scooping up anything else.
(When I didn’t want to eat all of my vegetables, I would stop mid-meal and tell my family that I needed to go the bathroom. I would also say that I would take my plate/bowl and eat it while I was in there. Then I would go into the bathroom, and toss some of the vegetables in the toilet. I thought that I was slick. Thinking about it now, I’m sure my family knew my “trick,” but some reason they never called me out on it.)
Thankfully, I grew up with a more developed palette and a better appreciation for Lao cuisine. Especially when I got a place of my own and wasn’t able to enjoy family cooking as often. Therefore, as any person does on their journey of adulthood, I had to learn.
I actually never had or even heard of Khao Soi growing up. From my understanding, it’s because this is a northern Lao dish, and my family comes from the southern part of Lao — Pakse, specifically. The first time that I ever had it was when I went on my first trip to Laos, in Luang Prabang.
One early morning, I decided to explore and walk around. My specific goal that morning was to find an iced Lao milk coffee served in a bag, but as I walked by a couple of food vendors, a woman called out to me and said to come eat khao soi. Even though I didn’t even know what khao soi was at the time, I simply obliged. After I ate that delicious spicy pork noodle soup, I was hooked.
Once I came home from this trip, I couldn’t find khao soi served at any of the local Lao restaurants (or Thai restaurants that were secretly Lao). One restaurant had it, but to my disappointment, it was the Thai version with coconut milk and fried egg noodles. But then finally, at an annual fundraiser for The SEAD Project where the catering was done by Soul Lao, I finally had Khao Soi again!
Eventually, I decided I needed to learn how to make this dish. After looking up recipes on YouTube and testing out variations, I finally came up with this recipe that works for me.
(Based on our ≈ 5qt IKEA pot)
Serves about 8 servings
Ingredients:
Broth —
- Water (⅔ full for our pot)
- 3 stalks of green onion
- ½ yellow onion
- Handful of cilantro stems
- Half a bulb of garlic cloves (about 6 cloves)
- 1 ginger root arm
- 2 lbs of pork bones
- 4 tsp of salt (adjust for taste, but not too salty since meat sauce is salty)
- ½ tsp of MSG
Meat Sauce —
- 3 tbsp of vegetable oil (or more. Some people put a lot to help preserve meat sauce for leftovers)
- 3 garlic cloves
- ¼ cup of red curry paste (add less for less spice) — Mae Ploy brand
- 2 roma tomatoes
- 1 lb of ground pork
- ½ tsp of paprika (maybe none if you want less spicy. People also add this to make the meat sauce redder)
- Black pepper for additional seasoning
- 2 tbsp of soybean sauce — Healthy Boy brand
Other —
- Pack of wide rice noodles
- Chopped cilantro leaves
- Chopped green onions
- Fried onion
- Fried garlic
Instructions:
- Prep broth ingredients:
- Cut the white ends of the green onions. Wrap them with a rubber band or something to keep them together.
- Twist off or cut off the leaf parts of cilantro. Wrap cilantro stems with a rubber band or something to keep them together. Save cilantro leaves and chop later for garnish.
- Peel garlic and trim off root ends.
- Peel ginger arm and cut into discs.
- Heat pot of water at high heat. Once boiling, add green onions, cilantro stems, garlic, and ginger. Let those ingredients steep in water until water changes color and is fragrant (like tea).
- Add pork bones. Let pork bones cook (don’t strain anything, as it all gives the broth flavor). Once pork bones are cooked, add salt and MSG to your taste. Start with ½ tsp, stir, taste test, and then add more to your liking. Remember that meat sauce will be salty, so making the broth a little less salty will be okay (I try to make it so that if needed, the broth could stand on its own without the meat sauce).
- Lower the heat, and let broth simmer for at least 3 hours.
- After 2 hours or so, start prepping meat sauce ingredients:
- Peel garlic and mince.
- Chop roma tomatoes into cubes.
- Heat oil in a large pan on medium heat. Once heated, add garlic and stir fry for about a minute.
- Add red curry, and stir around until softer. Make sure that the curry doesn’t burn.
- Add cubed tomatoes. Stir and break tomatoes further until mixed with curry and garlic.
- Add ground pork, and stir until cooked. Add black pepper and paprika for taste.
- Add soybean sauce. I only add 2 tbsp because the soybean sauce is really salty, but you can add more if you want it saltier. Turn heat off and set aside.
- Boil and cook wide noodles. Strain and set aside.
Setup:
- Microwave and warm noodles if they have cooled down since cooked.
- Ladle broth into the bowl.
- Add meat sauce.
- Top with fried onion, fried garlic, green onions, and cilantro.