Fried fermented country style ribs : Nhame Kaduuk moo tod

                Nhame is a way to preserve the meat in Thailand.  We use the meat fermented with rice, salt and garlic.  The most popular meat to use in this process is pork and fish.  Usually we use ground meat to make Nhame and some people love to eat it raw, but around 10 years ago the restaurants in Thailand invented this menu (I don’t know who they are but they are a genius.)  They use soft bone rib to make Nhame then fried it.  It became popular ever since.  It tastes just like salami which is a little sour and garlicky usually served with diced fresh ginger and chopped or whole fresh chili.

I was craving for this dish for about a week already and this time I just had an urge to make it. Why’s that?  Because I’ve never made fermented pork before in my life.  I was nervous that it would come out like spoiled pork that stinks all over my house.  This dish became one of my experimental dishes.  It came out pretty good so I made it again after I finished eating the first one that’s how good it was.  After I made this dish a couple of times I found out that actually it was very easy to make this dish. You just need to know the technique of making it!!! What is it?  The technique is to massage the pork with rice, salt and garlic in order to allow the entire ingredients to get into all the pieces of the pork for the perfect fermentation process.  You will get a perfect result!!!

Ingredients

1 lb country style ribs cut into ¼ inch cube

½ tbsp. salt

1 cup cooked rice

1 head garlic (about 6-8 glove)

Vegetable Oil to deep fried

Cooking instructions

1.       Pound garlic until it becomes little pieces with tenderizer

2.       In the mixing bowl add country style ribs, salt and garlic then massage them together about 5 minutes.

3.       Then add rice into the mixer, keep massaging another 10-30 minutes.

4.       Put the mixture into a Ziplock bag and a plastic container (in case Ziplock bag leaking).  Leave it outside the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

5.       After 3-4 days open the bag of the pork fermented.  It will have a smell that is kind of sour and garlicky like salami and the color of the meat and the liquid that is fermented will be cloudy white not green or blue, if your pork becomes green or blue and has a stinky smell not sour smell it means you didn’t massage enough so the meat became spoiled meat Do not eat it!!!

 The pork fermented after 3 days

6.       Preheat the oil in medium heat.  Then use thongs to grab the fermented pork let all of the liquid drip off slowly and add it into the hot oil fried about 5-7 minutes until golden brown.

7.       Serve with ginger, fresh chili, fried lemongrass and kaffir lime leave (optional)