Sunday I made the Thai-Style Jok with Pork Meatballs recipe from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. This recipe is part of the the congee/rice porridge section of the book.

For the main recipe, no ingredients are unusual. The “optional but recommended” toppings, however, are plentiful. The fried shallots, nam pla prik, and prik nam som don’t have any difficult-to-find ingredients, though they all take some time to prepare. The “minced sweet Thai preserved radish” is probably the most unusual ingredient of the lot, though we keep some on hand for pad Thai.

The process is pretty much the same as basic congee: simmer rice and stock for about an hour until it’s a porridge-like consistency. I went with the jasmine rice option to keep with the Thai style. This recipe also calls for a lemongrass stalk to simmer with the rice and finishes with white pepper and fish sauce to taste.

While the rice simmers, you make meatballs with ground pork, white pepper, fish sauce, soy sauce, garlic, and sugar. Once the rice is done, you pinch meatball chunks into the simmering congee, cover, and simmer until the meatballs firm up.

In the spirit of giving this recipe its best shot, I did all of the optional toppings. So I stirred some spinach in while the meatballs continued cooking. If using eggs, Kenji directs that a bit of congee be put in a bowl, the raw egg cracked on top, and then more congee on top of that. Then we topped with cilantro, scallions, preserved radish, fried shallots, nam pla prik, and prik nam som.

My wife and I both thought it was fine. My son thought it was too “tangy,” but we couldn’t quite figure out what he meant by that. He had nothing more than the congee and meatballs, so he wasn’t getting it from any of the toppings. My daughter, again, refused to try it. My wife and I were not fans of the egg surprise in the middle. It never quite cooked even with among the hot congee.

I don’t know if I’ll make this again. If I do, I’ll definitely leave out the egg and only use toppings that I already have on hand.

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.