Son-in-Law Eggs (Kai Look Koey)

When I cook “son-in-law eggs”, it actually makes me giggle the entire time. Frankly, the name of this dish cracks me up in the weirdest way.

Son-in-law egg is a famous Thai dish, it can be served as snack or devoured with some hot jasmine rice. The wonderful combination of crispy, deep fried boiled eggs and sweet tamarind sauce makes son-in-law egg an exciting phenomenon.

Why is it called “son-in-law egg”, any way?

There are a few tales circulating the history of son-in-law egg. One of the best stories was that a mother-in-law cooked this dish for her son-in-law as the cautionary that if his acts have become mischievous, then it would be his balls that would be served on the plate. Another one was that the son-in-law cooked this dish to welcome and impress their in-laws, but I found it quite boring and not credible because of all the earth he could cooked for them… why would he cooked something that looked slightly freaky

When I was small, I never really gave a thought about the story of son-in-law eggs when my aunt taught me to deep fry some boiled eggs and made this sweet tamarind sauce. All I knew was it was so wonderfully delicious with the dark amber tamarind syrup soaked the crisp and hot eggs.

Deep fried hard boiled eggs might sound scary at first, but it actually pretty easy and not at all dangerous. Deep frying causes the exterior of the eggs become a crispy and a little bit chewy so when you bite them, they dance in your mouth.

Son-in-Law Eggs

Ingredients: (4 servings)

8 hard boiled eggs- peeled and wiped dry

150 tamarind pulp

2 cup warm water

3/4 cup palm sugar

2 tbsp fish sauce

1/2 tsp soy sauce

5 shallots- finely sliced

5 dried red chili-whole chili

Fresh coriander leaves- chopped

Oil for deep frying

Preparation

1. Heat oil in the deep fryer or medium sauce pan over the medium heat and deep fry the eggs, check the eggs frequently until golden brown. Remove them from the oil and keep aside.
2. Soak tamarind pulp in warm water for 5 minutes then strain tamarind juice through the fine sift.
3. Bring tamarind juice to boil in the pan with palm sugar, fish sauce and soy sauce. Cook further until the syrup becomes thick, check the seasoning and keep aside.
4. In another pan, fry whole dried red chili and sliced shallot until golden brown.
5. Mix fried chili and shallot into tamarind sauce.
6. Arrange the eggs in the serving plate; you may cut the eggs in half so the sauce mixes well in the eggs. Pour the sauce over the eggs and serve hot.

When I served this dish and my guests asked me what’s it called, Yes, ha ha it has a funny name, but the flavour of this is no joke… it’s outstanding. It was so wonderfully addictive. The sweet and sour tamarind sauce melted into the eggs and made every bite so liberally delicious.

Love,
Tes