Thai Red Fried Meatball Fried Rice with Crispy Egg

Start by making the meatballs. Add a shot of oil to a small frying pan, then add the curry paste and fry for 3 mins. Set aside.

Finely chop the coriander stalks and transfer to a large bowl. Add the chicken mince and half of the fish sauce, then grate in the zest of 1/2 the lime. Add the fried curry paste, eggs, breadcrumbs and seasoning. Mix together really well until it becomes sticky. Form into 12 balls with wet hands, around 60g-70g each.

Heat a shot of oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat and fry the meatballs for 10-15 mins until golden all over and cooked through. Set aside.

Next make the peanut sauce: get the coconut milk into a saucepan with the peanut butter and the remaining fish sauce. Melt and bring to a simmer, then season with salt and the juice of the remaining lime. Add the sugar, if necessary, to balance the flavour.

Trim and halve the green beans. Cook the rice following pack instructions, then add the green beans 5 mins before the end of cooking time. Thinly slice the spring onions.

Optional: if batch cooking for the week, transfer the meatballs, rice/beans, peanut sauce and spring onions to separate Tupperware containers now.

For the fried rice, cut the meatballs into bite-sized pieces. Heat a glug of oil in a pan over medium heat then add the meatballs, cooking until crisp and piping hot. Pick the herb leaves.

Add the rice and beans to the pan with the meatballs and cook until piping hot and starting to catch on the pan. Season with salt and pepper.

In a separate small frying pan, heat another glug of oil over a medium high heat and crack in the eggs, basting with the oil until the whites are set and the yolk runny or cooked to your liking.

Toss the herbs through the meatball rice, then plate up. Drizzle with the peanut sauce and scatter with spring onions. Drizzle with sriracha if using.