Egg Nets

I first encountered egg nets at upmarket Thai restaurant Longrain in Sydney - it's their signature dish and very impressive, with huge but delicate dinner-plate sized nets encasing sweet, tangy, spicy salad. My interest was piqued again when Longrain chef Martin Boetz recreated the dish for Masterchef Australia (MY FAVE SHOW NO LIE). I've wanted to try them ever since.

This is not the Longrain version - rather, I've gone for a simpler version from beloved but soon to end ABC show The Cook & The Chef, itself adapted from chef David Thompson's recipe. (Thompson is the chef behind Sailors Thai, mentioned in this photo post.) It was still not easy!

An aside: I am so very glad my mother taught me how to shell and devein prawns in my youth. I haven't had to use the skill much - prawns are so much more fun to eat than cook - but you never really forget. Scrunch, crunch, gloop, crack. It's not for the squeamish... then again, not much about omnivorous cooking is.




Ingredients

3 eggs

Paste:
3 coriander roots
4 garlic cloves
10 white peppercorns (I used black ones)
Pinch of salt

Filling:
Oil to fry
50g pork mince
100g green prawn meat, chopped
2 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoon palm sugar (I just subbed the usual sugar)

Garnish:
1 tablespoon lemon grass whites, finely sliced
1 1/2 red shallots, sliced (what are red shallots? I used green!)
1 tablespoon red chilli, julienned
Handful coriander leaves


Method

Whisk the eggs to combine, but do not over beat. Strain eggs through a fine strainer. Chill overnight (or even just an hour or two, as I did).

Prepare paste by pounding the coriander roots, salt, garlic and peppercorns in a mortar and pestle. Set aside.

Bring eggs to room temperature.

Lightly oil a flat frypan and heat to a medium heat.

Dip fork* in the egg mix and wave across the wok/flat frypan so that the egg drizzles in the oil. Move your fork backwards and forwards and from side to side to form a net. Do not move too quickly otherwise the strands will be too fine and will break. Circle the perimeter to form a border. Remove and drain on paper. Repeat until egg mix is finished.



Heat oil in a pan and fry off the paste you prepared earlier, until fragrant and golden.

Add pork, stir and add prawns.

Season with fish sauce and palm sugar and bring it all together.
Set aside and when cool add lemongrass, shallots, chilli and coriander.

Lay out an egg net, spread some mix on the lower third of the net and roll up.


* The original recipe suggests using your hand. This, I discovered, is IMPOSSIBLE. The first ones turned out horrible! The fork-netted ones were much much better.



From The Cook & The Chef, ABC TV Australia