Continuing with the prik khing theme, I just made these “prik khing rice nuggets.” A former employee was in Austin, TX and had food at this Thai food truck called Lucky Belly. He loved these fried rice balls they served and said I should give it a try. I love experimenting. The description Lucky Belly had for these rice balls were red curry and kafir lime leaves — instantly I thought of prik khing and arancini (Italian-style fried rice balls).

So I mixed rice with prik khing curry paste, soy sauce and kafir lime leaves. To keep with the arancini idea I added some shredded mozzarella cheese as well.  Rolled the seasoned rice into balls, dipped them in a light flour batter and then coated them with panko breadcrumbs. I deep-fried the at 350 degrees until golden brown and served them with Mae Ploy sweet chili sauce (my go to brand for sweet chili sauce).

These were fabulous. What a fun food to have and enjoy. This is definitely a great food mashup – Thai-style arancini.

This is definitely a keeper for my recipe book. So many ways to tinker with too. Adding ground pork/chicken/beef would work well, or even bacon pieces. Possibly top it off with a fried quail egg.

Ingredients list:

1.)Cooked rice (old rice would be perfect)

2.) prik khing curry paste

3.) sugar

4.) soy sauce

5.) kafir lime leaves

6.) flour batter (flour and water – pancake batter consistency)

7.) panko breadcrumbs

8.) mozzarella cheese

9.) optional – ground meat (pork, chicken, beef), bacon