Egg net rolls (Po Piat Tot)

Egg nets are those nets made out of fried egg (very complicated description, hey?!) that you see wrapped around other ingredients - they act like nori for sushi - I've also seen fried rice wrapped up/covered with an egg net, not sure if that's a Thai thing or b******ised for foreign audiences! The one we made was the sushi variant, with caramelised coconut and chicken as the main fillings.

Hello egg net!

THE PREP

Egg nets:


Whisk eggs with a little salt and sesame oil, and leave them in the fridge overnight, otherwise the egg won't be smooth and stringy enough.

To make egg nets, heat a wok with a substantial amount of oil - the surface of the oil being about how big you want the egg net to be.

Keep the oil on a low simmer, otherwise there'l lbe a lot of spitting and the net will break or jig around too much.

Here's the fun part: dip fingers of one hand into the bowl of egg. Part your fingers lightly, lift your hand out of the bowl and dangle it above the wok. Move your hand forwards and backwards, like you're paddling in water, or signalling "come, come", with your wrist being the "hinge" point - only your hand needs to move. Once you've done that up and down a few times, turn and do it horizontally, so you get the crisscrosses required to form a net.

When you're satisfied, use something sharpish to cut the net away from the sides of the wok, and use a couple of spatulas or a tool of your choice to flip the net over.

Don't take too long as the egg will start to go golden brown, which means it will be too brittle.

Take it out and spread it out on a paper towel, letting it cool.

Caramelised coconut:

Buy shredded coconut flesh from a Thai grocer. Fry it slowly with coriander root, ginger, garlic and white pepper, than add fish sauce and palm sugar and let it cook slowly, so the sugar doesn't burn and it will coats the strips of coconut, and they will also soften. It could take up to two hours (if I remember correctly).

THE FILLING

Take caramelised coconut, as above.

Chicken

Add cooked, shredded chicken, but it could be duck, pork, whatever you like.

Thai lime zest

Finely sliced lemongrass.
Finely sliced shallots, ginger

Ready to roll

Lay an egg net out on a strong paper towel, or even a sushi mat, then lay some filling down the longest part. Try to pack it down and don't leave air pockets.

Rolled

Trim off the side of the net.

Start rolling form the cut edge, using the paper towel or sushi mat to help you get a tight roll. Make sure you don't roll the towel into the roll!

Trim off the egg nest towards the end so you get a straight, clean closure to the roll.

Perfect finger food

Cut the roll up, like sushi, trimming off the head and tail of the roll for neatness.

Resist the temptation to eat them off the chopping board, place them on your serving dish, and off you go.