One of my favorite Lao comfort food is tom khem. “Tom” means boil and “khem” means salty. It is a braised pork dish in a salty, yet sweet broth. The sweetness balances out the saltiness and the pork is ever so tender.
But for me, the hard boiled eggs are my favorite. After the eggs have been in the simmering broth for a while, the flavors soaks into the eggs and makes them so delicious!
Serve this mouth watering dish with steamed jasmine rice and some lao spicy sauce as a condiment.
Braised pork with hard boiled eggs
- 3 lbs pork butt cut into bite size pieces
- 1.5 inch ginger sliced
- 1.5 inch galangal sliced
- 3 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 C sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 3 T fish sauce
- 1 T light soy sauce
- 3 tsp dark soy sauce
- 5 C water
- 5-8 eggs hard boiled
On low heat, caramelize the sugar. Stirring as the sugar turns a golden brown.
Add the ginger, garlic and galangal and stir until golden and fragrant
Add the pork butt, salt, pepper, fish sauce, light soy sauce and dark soy sauce.
Stir until the ingredients are mixed well and the pork starts to brown.
Add the water and bring to a boil.
Add the hard boiled eggs and simmer for 20 minutes until the pork is cooked and the eggs are brown.
Serve with jasmine rice.
Your sisters partner stealing your recipe to feed my cravings for Lao food, if only she could cook lol…
She has all the recipes now so no excuses. Enjoy!
Hubby and kids loved it, so did I! they keep asking me to make it again lol
That’s wonderful!
I am making it again 😂 for dinner my favourite dish 😋
That’s awesome! Glad you like it.
I believe Thom Khem is supposed to be pork belly not pork butt, but I’m sure it’s delicious this way too
Yes that’s true!I just like to make it less fatty 🙂
Pretty sure this is a vietnamese dish not laotian 😂🤣
This dish is common on many South East Asian countries. The Lao version is sweeter in flavor.
No matter what country it comes with i like everything sweeter 😂😂. I think a little more sweetness is better 😁.
Me too! 😋