Skip to main content
Main

Keng Pa Sai

A Laotian soup made with pork bones, grilled fish, vermicelli, and herbs.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Coriander and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,536 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Keng Pa Sai

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Put 3 metal jugfuls (3 pints) of water in a soup pot and place the pot on the fire.

  2. Add salt, the 6 spring onions, and the bunches of coriander leaves with their roots.

  3. When the water boils, add the pork bones and put the lid on the pot.

  4. Leave it until the bones are cooked sufficiently for the meat to fall off them.

  5. Take the pot off the fire and spoon out the meat.

  6. If there is still any fat left, cut it all off.

  7. Strain the broth and return it to the pot.

  8. Add the meat and return the pot to the fire.

Make the soup

  1. Add the shallots, the jelly mushrooms and the fish sauce.

  2. When the shallots are cooked, add the Chinese vermicelli.

  3. When all is done, taste and check the saltiness.

  4. Take the pot off the fire and add the prepared strips of omelette and the dried fish.

Serve

  1. Serve in a bowl and garnish with the chopped spring onion leaves, the chopped coriander leaves, the finely chopped Kaffir lime leaves and the ground black pepper.

  2. Accompany the dish with Jaew Kapi and fried vegetables.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Coriander + limetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Shallot + limetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together258 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Pork + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  5. Shallot + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pork bones
Simmering releases collagen and gelatin, giving the broth body and a rich mouthfeel.
Shallots
Cooking softens them and mellows their sharp bite into a sweet, aromatic flavour.
Jelly mushrooms
Boiling gives them a slippery, springy texture that contrasts with the soft noodles.
Kaffir lime leaves
Their finely chopped oils add a bright, citrusy aroma to the broth.
Fish sauce
Adds salty, savoury depth that rounds out the broth.
Eggs
Thin omelette strips add soft, mild egg flavour and a tender texture.

The step that matters

Checking the saltiness. Salt from the fish sauce and seasoning concentrates as the broth reduces, and it is hard to correct once other ingredients are added, so taste carefully before serving.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, fish, shallot, mushroom, egg, coriander, lime):

  1. Chivebetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Spinachbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, fish, shallot, mushroom, egg, coriander, lime. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Fried FishFried Fish120 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipes