Son-In-Law's Eggs (Kai Luuk Koei)

Son-in-law's eggs may sound like a brutal punishment but it's actually a very common food in Thailand. We cal lit "kai luuk koei" (kai = egg, luuk koei = son-in-law), and no one really knows where the name comes from. Maybe a lady made them for her son-in-law with a sauce that was normally for fish because he didn't like fish. Who knows!?

But this is a delicious side dish we eat with rice. It's made from duck eggs and has a full-flavoured sweet-sour-salty profile. The boiled-then-fried eggs have a chewy texture on the outside and are soft and luxurious in the middle. Accompanies by fried shallots, chilies, and cilantro, these eggs are ridiculously addictive!

Here's my family's recipe!

Equipment

bowls and spoons

pot big enough for boiling 4 eggs

frying pan big enough for frying 4 boiled eggs

strainer

Ingredients

4 duck eggs (richer than chicken eggs, but you can use chicken eggs if you have to)

cooking oil

6-7 small shallots

3 Tbsp (44 ml) sour tamarind

2 Tbsp (30 ml) + 1 Tbsp (15 ml) water

6-7 dried chilies

3 Tbsp (45 ml) fish sauce (or soy sauce)

3 Tbsp (45 ml) palm sugar (AKA jaggery - if you don't have it, use 2 1/2 Tbsp cane sugar)

1 Tbsp (15ml) cane sugar (I use golden cane sugar for a nice caramel flavour, but you can use white sugar instead)

lime

cilantro (aka coriander leaves)

The first step is simple.

Just set a pot of water to boil and then put in your 4 duck eggs. Boil them for 3-5 minutes if you want runny yolks, 6 minutes + if you want the yolks hard.

Use a timer!

Remove the eggs and put them in a bowl of cold (icy) water. This stops them from getting an ugly grey ring around the yolks, and also is a good way to cool them down so you don't burn your hands.

After a few minutes in a cold bath, take them out and peel the shells off. You can use them in your garden!

Next, you want to start frying.

First, peel your shallots.

Then slice them into thin rings. I mean about 1mm which is about 1/32 of an inch.

Put a frying pan with oil on medium-high heat and toss in the shallots when the oil is hot. Then turn the heat down quickly to low-medium and fry them, stirring often. When they start to turn yellow, take them out using a strainer because they will still cook after they are out of the oil. This way you can get a perfect golden-brown colour. This can take about 8-10 minutes.

If you fry them too long, they will get dark and bitter.

Then fry the dry chilies for just a minute on medium heat in the same oil. Remove and strain the chilies and set them aside.

Using the same oil again, you can now fry your 4 boiled duck eggs. Set the pan to medium-high heat and fry the eggs, flipping them around constantly to make sure they cook evenly all over.

This will take only 3-4 minutes, and the outer surface of each egg should go golden-brown and bubbly. Strain them out and set aside. Yum!

The last thing to make is the delicious tamarind-based sauce.

First you will need to make "makaam piak" or wet tamarind. Use the 2 Tbsp of water by heating it up and pouring it over the dried sour tamarind paste. Mash this with a fork and you will see the flesh come off of the seeds of the tamarind, turning this into a thick paste.

You will need to use 4 Tbsp of this sauce for this recipe. Don't use the seeds!

BUT... if you can just find tamarind concentrate, use 4 Tbsp of that instead. It should be very sour, however, and if not you will need to add more lime later.

Once you have 4 Tbsp of tamarind concentrate (homemade or bought), you can add this to a small pan or pot. Then add 1 Tbsp water, all the sugar, and the fish sauce (or soy sauce) and simmer this sauce to make it all come together and reduce it a bit. You want the final sauce to be almost a thin syrup, not so runny as water. At the end, squeeze on some lime juice to add a delightful smell.

Taste your sauce. It should be sweet and sour and a little salty. Add what you need to get the perfect balance.

Now it's time to put everything together.

Find a nice dish. Cut the eggs in half or even quarters and arrange them nicely. Now pour over the sauce. Sprinkle on fried shallots (lots!) and fried chilies. Finally, sprinkle on cilantro leaves to make it all look beautiful.

You're done!

I hope you love this easy-to-make, full-flavoured dish. You can eat it with rice or just on it's own.

But be careful you don't get addicted!