Clay pot cooking is Chinese in style. If you have four smaller clay pots you can make individual dishes to serve instead of one large one. A heavy casserole will work just as well. The ingredients in the dish will flavour the rice as it cooks.
Ingredients
- 12 raw small prawns (shrimp), peeled, deveined and roughly chopped
- 1 lemon grass stalk, white part only, finely chopped
- 2 large green chillies, chopped
- 1 teaspoon Thai whisky or rice wine
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon tapioca flour
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 2 coriander (cilantro) roots, chopped
- 2 cm (¾ in) piece of ginger, chopped
- 2 Asian shallots, chopped
- 7 oz 1 cup (200 g) jasmine rice
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 2 Thai or Chinese sour sausages, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons chopped coriander (cilantro), for garnish
How to Make It
- Put the prawns in a bowl with 1 tablespoon of lemon grass, the chillies, whisky, fish sauce and tapioca flour. Stir to combine.
- Pound the remaining lemon grass with the garlic, coriander roots, ginger and shallots in a pestle and mortar or blend in a small food processor to form a rough paste.
- Wash the rice in cold water until the water runs clear, then drain.
- Heat the oil in a wok, add the garlic and lemon grass paste and cook for 3–4 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the drained rice and cook for 1 minute to coat the rice evenly in the mixture.
- Transfer the rice to a large clay pot and add water so there is 2 cm (¾ in) of water above the surface of the rice. Bring the water to a slow boil, then place the sausage slices on top of the rice and the prawn mixture on top of the sausages. Cover and cook over low heat for 15 minutes, or until the rice is cooked. Serve sprinkled with the coriander.
