Recipe
Twa Ko (recipe)
Coarsely chopped fatty pork or beef pounded with lemongrass kroeung aromatics, stuffed into casings and air-dried.
This recipe for Twa Ko, the Khmer lemongrass sausage, follows the version published on Tevy's Food Blog in March 2011 as twa ko kroeung.[1] Fatty pork or beef is mixed with pounded lemongrass, galangal, garlic and lime leaves, stuffed into casings and dried in the sun.[1]
The recipe calls for meat with 25 percent fat, and pork belly gives the sausage enough. Thai nam powder helps sour the sausage. The optional red Chinese barbecue seasoning gives it a red color and a barbecue smell, and crushed Thai chilies make it hot. The recipe prefers leftover rice for the cooked rice.[1]
Ingredients
- 3.5 lb pork shoulder, pork butt or beef with 25 percent fat
- 0.5 cup minced garlic
- 10 kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced
- 0.5 cup minced lemongrass
- 0.33 cup minced galangal
- 3 tbsp oyster sauce
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 package Thai nam powder
- 1 package red Chinese barbecue seasoning powder, optional
- 1 to 2 tbsp crushed Thai chilies, optional
- 1 cup cold cooked rice
- Pork casing[1]
Method
- Cut the meat into small pieces.
- Pound the lemongrass, galangal, garlic and lime leaves to a paste in a mortar and pestle.
- Put the meat and all the other ingredients in a large bowl and mix them well by hand.
- Wash the salt from the inside and outside of the casing.
- Fill the casing with a sausage stuffer or any clean tube with a wide top.
- Twist the filled casing into links.
- Hang the links in the sun to dry for about a day. Without sun, the links can be dried indoors in front of a fan for a day.
- Keep the sausages in the refrigerator or freezer until needed.
- Grill or pan-fry the sausages.[1]
The published recipe gives no cooking times or temperatures.