Khao Piak Sen is undeniably one of my family’s favourite breakfast dish. We would gather around the big pot of noodles and broth then help ourselves with the garnishes. It’s really a fun way to get your family together.
My Childhood Memory
Growing up, I was exposed to Thai cuisines from the various regions of Thailand. In particular, the Northeastern also known locally as E-sarn region. My father’s family was from this region and they’re a family of dedicated cooks.
My family lives in Bangkok but we do make a trip over once or twice a year during the Thai New Year’s in April. Each time we go, there has always been a must-eat breakfast menu that we never miss – Khao Piak Sen, aka Kway Chap Yuan.
You may also have heard that there’s an equivalent dish with the same eaten in Laos. This recipe is not a recreation of a Laotian dish but an actual version of the dish enjoyed on the other side of the border. Laos and Thailand has had a long history, the Thai Northeastern dialect is also very similar to Laos language. So needless to say that we can rightfully claim this dish as our own too.
A Hearty Breakfast
Khao Piak Sen is a very popular breakfast option in the northeastern region of Thailand. The flavourful pork bone broth sees the rice noodles added directly into it. The starch from the noodle then thickens the soup and giving it rather an umptious mouthfeel.
The dish is garnished with small dollops of pork mince balls which was also cooked in the soup. To amp up the flavour, shreds of Vietnamese ham (Moo Yor) is also added together with crispy shallots, chopped coriander and sometime spring onions.
My mum always has a way of giving her own spin to the dish. Taking this hearty bowl to the next level, she adds a seasoning sauce on the side. The sauce is made from shrimp paste, chilli flakes, lime juice and a bit of sugar to balance it out.
For the right reasons, my family would only make this dish when they can get hold of the fresh noodles. The dish is just simply not as good with any odd dried ones. Lucky for me I’ve found an alternative than I can use in the UK which had inspired this recipe. Saying that, making the fresh noodles is really worth the effort.
I hope this recipe will inspire you to explore the many types of noodles there are and let me know how you got on with it.
Khao Piak Sen Key Steps
Step 1: Pork Bone Broth
For a rich and flavourful pork broth, I always choose the back bones rather than the rib bones to make soup. It has got more flavour and the fat in the marrow adds texture while intensifying that porky flavour. Unfortunately, I’ve not come across this in your supermarket but the local butcher should be able to fix you up with some. Alternatively, the Asian grocery stores will stock some in the freezer section too. Top tip is the make sure you wash off the little bone debris before you use it. I’d even go one step further and recommend you blanch them in boiling water for 5 minutes to get rid of the dirt and fowl smell, if any.
Step 2: Khao Piak Sen Noodles
The fresh Khao Piak Sen noodles that we can get in Thailand is typically made of a mixture of rice flour and tapioca starch. This means that the noodles has a beautiful texture of bounciness with a bit of chewiness. The noodle sourced in the UK is the dried version but once cooked, it really does remind me of the ones I had back home. Look out for the thin, round ones at your Asian grocery store. Though, if you feel fancy, they’re actually not hard to make. The one is used is this brand. You don’t have to soak them ahead of time as we do want the broth to thickened with the addition of the noodles.
To make the noodles, simply add tapioca flour with rice flour then in goes hot water. Give it a good mix then roll it out, cut them into strands. Et voila!
Step 3: One bowl at a time
The last secret to recreating this dish is to cook the noodles to the perfect portions you want to serve. So for example, if you’ve made a large pot of stock, only pour enough for one portion to another saucepan then add only one portion of the noodles into the saucepan. This way you’ll be able to keep the rest of the broth clean and untouched as it’ll keep for longer.
Khao Piak Sen Noodles
Ingredients
Pork Broth
- 1 kg pork bones
- 1 whole Asian radish or mooli
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 2 litre water
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp fish sauce
Noodle Garnish
- 200 g pork mince
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- ½ tsp white pepper powder
- ½ tsp sugar
- 1 stick Vietnamese ham, sliced into matchsticks
- 4 tbsp crispy shallots
- 1 bunch coriander
Khao Piak Noodles
- 120 g rice flour
- 180 g tapioca flour
- ½ tsp salt
- 180 g boiling hot water
Instructions
Pork Broth
- Clean the pork bones in running water to make sure it's free of any bone chips. In a stock pot, cover the bones with just enough water then bring it to a boil for 5 minutes.
- Remove the bones and discard of the water. Wash the bones again under cold water to remove any gunk.
- Return the clean bones into the stock pot then add the mooli (or Asian radish) that had been cut into big pieces as well as black peppercorns. Cover the bones with 2 Litre of water or enough to cover the bones and simmer for 3 hours.
- When the broth is ready, season with salt and soy sauce then set aside.
- Make the pork mince balls by combing the mince with the rest of the seasoning. Shape the mince into little balls then drop them into the pork broth we made earlier.
Khao Piak Sen Noodles
- Combine the dry ingredients for the noodles then give it a little mix.
- Pour in the boiling water then mix using a spoon first. The dough will be very hot so becareful not to burn yourself.
- After a couple of minutes when the dough starts to cool, knead the dough with your hands until it comes together into a smooth ball.
- Roll the dough out into a sheet about 3 mm thick. To avoid the dough sticking to the surface, sprinkle a bit of tapioca flour as you work it. Then cut into thin strips roughly about 3mm width.
Assembling the noodles
- Remove the bones and radish from the broth we made earlier. Bring the broth to a boil, then add the freshly made noodles into the broth. Cook the noodles for 1-3 minutes (longer if you left the noodles to dry out).
- The garnish with the pork mince, fried shallots, coriander and sprinkle of white pepper powder. Serve hot!
Let me know how it went
I have let you into my mum’s secret seasoning sauce recipe so let me know what you think. Are you teamplain or teamspicy?
Did you make this recipe? Follow and tag me on @eatwithfish_. I look forward to seeing your creations. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter and email updates for the latest recipes.
Leave a Reply