Thai Laab Recipe

Larb or Laab is one of the most common Thai dish and can be served as/with lunch or dinner. Laab is often made with one kind of ground meat like beef, pork, chicken, fish, duck or even mushroom. Laab's main flavor is from lime juice (sour), fish sauce (salty) and ground roasted red pepper (spicy). If you are into Thai cooking, make sure your kitchen is never ever lack of those three things.

However, Laab has very specific taste and differs from other Thai salad dishes. Laab isn't Laab without these 2 main components, fresh mint leaves and ground toasted rice. Toasted rice!!! Where can I get that, man!?! I know. But don't quit yet. Toasted rice is ground and packed in a sealed plastic jar for $2-$3 at any Asian grocery stores. This is ready to be used for Laab.

As long as I have the main ingredients, making Laab is very quick and simple. Just make sure the meat is fully cooked, toss all the other components in and mix them all well in a bowl, like the way you want your salad to be thoroughly coated with dressing.

I just made one with pork and liver for lunch today. Here's my version.

Ingredients

1 cup lean ground pork

1/2 cup sliced pig liver (1/8 inch thick)

2 tbs. finely chopped scallion

1 ts. full thinly sliced shallot

1/2 cup coarsely torn fresh mint leaves

2.5 tbs. fish sauce

2.5 tbs. fresh lime juice

1 tbs. fried and ground roasted red chili (picture shown below) -- or just 2 tbs. regular roasted chili powder

(Fried one is a lot spicier than powder one)

2 tbs. ground toasted rice

How to

- First, cook pig liver in boiling water for 3-4 minutes or until all red color turns dark brown. Drain and set aside.

- Cook ground pork the same way you would cook hamburger meat. 

- In a mixing bowl, throw in fish sauce, lime juice, chili power, pork and liver. Mix them well with a spoon.

- Then throw in scallion, shallot, mint leaves and toasted rice . Mix it well. (In the picture, I left mint leaves out on the side for better composition).

The whole thing took me less than 10 minutes. 

Serve

Laab is extremely good with sticky rice. It's also good with hot cooked regular jasmine rice too. Thai people always eat any strong taste dishes with a basket full of various fresh vegetables. Try fresh long green bean, sliced fresh cabbage and cucumber with this Laab. It's GOOD!

Sticky rice how to

If I was in Thailand, I wouldn't have to bother searching or asking around anything about sticky rice. Coz! If I want one... some..., I just have to move my a-s-s downstairs from my apartment building and buy it from a street vendor which I might find one at every 10 -20 meters down the alley.

Grilled chicken drumstick + a bag of cooked sticky rice + sweet and sour dipping sauce = 20 Baht

!!! !!!

The fact is... I'm in Minneapolis. I feel lucky enough to be able to find this...

Look for this rice online here

raw sticky rice ::::: Just be careful when you shop for the rice. Sometimes raw jasmine rice and sticky rice almost look the same. Raw sticky rice is kinda solid white and Raw jasmine rice is usually clearer or more transparent. If you're a first time sticky rice maker, it's best to ask to make sure. ;P

How can we turn this inedibly raw rice to a bowl of sweet, chewy, soft and warm rice? If you search, you will find various solutions. What I'm gonna tell you is what Mum gave me. I tried it and it worked!!!

Ok, if you wanna try what I've successfully accomplished, :) you are encouraged to jot down there're 2 processes, softening and cooking. And what you'll need to have are :

1. raw sticky rice as shown above
2. a bowl for softening - any shape or size
3. a microwave-safe bowl for cooking - flatted bottomed about 8-9 inches wide
4. a microwave! :)

Softening

The thing about sticky rice is that it is sticky, right? So we can't just cook it the same way we do with Jasmine or other long grain rice. Now that you have a bag of raw sticky rice, let's start.

• In a bowl, clean 1 full cups of raw sticky rice*** by carefully pour in water, stir slowly with hand and carefully pour away the water.
• Clean the rice 3-4 times or until the water in the bowl becomes clear and clean.
• Then leave plenty of water in the bowl of washed rice (I'd say about 1.5 inches higher than rice level) and let it stay overnight in room temperature (not refrigerated)

Note : ***1 cups of raw sticky rice might only make a meal for 2 small people

Now, the next morning you'll see that the rice has swelled up a bit. That means the rice is ready to be cooked for lunch or dinner! (I wouldn't recommend having sticky rice for breakfast coz it's too filling it might make you sleepy and too lazy to go to work! Hahaha!!!)

Cooking

My cooking process only takes 5-6 minutes, I would make sure other food, dishes, table setting are done first and just 5 minutes before meal time, I just start cooking the rice. Here's what we do :

• Wash the softened raw sticky rice 1-2 times in a 8-9 inch 'square' microwave-safe bowl
• Leave in only 2 mm. water measuring from the surface of equally spreaded out rice
• Microwave for 3 minutes.
• Take the bowl out of the microwave. Take a good look at the rice. It should look like it's done -- clear and no solid white in the core of grain). If you still can see some solid white, microwave another 1 minute.
• Take the bowl out of the microwave. Flip the rice all over with a spoon or fork.
• Microwave for 1.5 minutes.
• Take the bowl out of the microwave. Take a good look at the rice again. Make sure you don't see any solid white core. If you do see some, microwave another 1 minute and it then should be done!

Now you you can enjoy your dinner! Oh, don't forget to cover the cooked stick rice all the time. Otherwise, the rice can become a lil dryer and harder coz of sitting in the air. Sometimes I cover it with a clean damp cloth. Sticky rice always tastes much better when it's warm and soft!

Special recommendation

I would recommend eating sticky rice together with a couple of different Thai dishes like ... grilled chicken with sweet & sour sauce + papaya salad + sun dried beef (nua dad deaw) or grilled whole fish + minced pork spicy salad (larb) + variety fresh veggies... mmmh yum!

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FISH SAUCE (nam pla)

Fish sauce or nam pla in Thai, light reddish brown liquid made of fish prolonged salting and fermentation, is the most essential condiment in "all" Thai dish. Nam pla is salty, fishy and smelly but a little amount of it turns bland dishes into savory and pleasing ones. In Thailand and countries around, nam pla is also used as table salt substitute, accordingly.

Choosing*

Every Thai household tends to find their own favourite brand of fish-sauce. We tend to stick with one same brand because the smell and saltiness greatly differ from brand to brand.
when it comes to choosing a bottle of fish sauce for the first time, here're some tips :
-- the higher price means the better quality and the imports have more authentic richer taste
-- the lighter and more translucent color is less stinky ... which is generally good

Keeping

Fish sauce should be stored in room temperature and tightly covered where heat and light can't reach. When the liquid color turns darker, replace it. Make sure the cap is always cleaned after used. Fish sauce that sticks around cap and bottle mouth will solidify and block up taphole.

*I personally used Kon Baek Kung Pure Fish Sauce all the time in Thailand. Here in USA, Three Crabs Brand made in Vietnam is my best choice.

Browse and buy fish sauce or more asian ingredients.

Essential herbs and condiments in Thai kitchen

Key herbs

Using a lot of herbs in Thai cooking helps stimulate authentic taste and of course make dishes more satisfying. The Three Musketeers in Thai cuisine are galangal, lemongrass and kiffir lime leaves. You will always find a bundle (... literall! Galangal, lemongrass and kiffir lime leaves bound together with a rubber band) in every Thai market. The more you cook Thai food, you'll learn you can't use one without the others. Other herbs like garlic and shallot are also not to be short of hands.

Galangal (ka) Looks like ginger root but the inside is perfectly white

Lemongrass (ta krai) Cut off tough leaves and lower bulbs before use. Use the stalk (yellow section) mainly.

Kaffir lime leaves (bai ma krood) Often used whole in soup and very thinly sliced in panang and fish cake.

Fresh Thai Chili (prik kee noo sod) Red ones are ripe and green ones are not. Using both colors creates more colorful dishes.

Dried Thai Chili (prik kee noo haeng) The sun-dried version of the ripe red one above. Often used to make curry pastes or pan-toasted and ground to make table dipping sauce.

Shallot (hom hua daeng) Used in salad (yum), curry paste and used whole in some soup.

Garlic (kra-tiam) Used in almost every stir-fried dishes. Sprinkle a teaspoon of dry and crispy fried garlic on top, make your Thai noodle soup more dainty.

Lime (ma nao) We don't recommend lemon as substitute.

Basil (ho ra pah) Always used in red and green curry.

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Key Condiments

Thai meal is a composition of 5 different instruments; sour, sweet, salty, spicy and bitter. Most of the herbs above play sour, spicy and bitter parts. The following condiments plays the rest, salty and sweet.

Fish Sauce (nam pla) Almost impossible to make create a Thai dish without it. Smelly and salty but a dash of it is such a fulfillment.

Shrimp Paste (ka pi) Used to make all curry paste. Also used in some dipping sauce.

Oyster sauce (nam man hoi) Thick texture made from oyster. This gives a mixture of sweet, salty and seafood-like taste. Used most in stir-fired dishes and marinating meat.

Light soy sauce (see ew kao) The color looks so much like fish sauce, but a lot less salty.

Thai Eating Style

In some Asian countries, eating with both hands might be considered rude or not appropriate but in the country like Thailand, Thai people use spoon on right hand and fork on the left -- both and together. Chopsticks somehow adopted from China and used for eating single dish noodles.

Single Dish

I'd say single dish is great choice for "singles"or two-people families, good choice for lunch on busy days or even dinner for extremely busy days. (Single dish is for everyone, duh!) A Thai single dish is a complete meal in one dish that fills you up which always includes either rice or noodle. A dish contains rice/noodle, meat and vegetable -- all in one dish -- served with no other side dishes just a little bowl of fish sauce dip (prik-nam-pla) to add taste.

Full meal
We all love the moment of joy when eating good food with many others, friends or families --Thai people too... I do! A Thai full meal is not a single main course with side dishes but a meal that consists of many various courses containing a variety of curry or soup, stir-fried dish, deep fried or steamed dish and dip or spicy salad served with fresh and steamed vegetables. All dishes are shared and enjoyed together (each dish has it own spoon for sharing called 'middle spoon'). Each person has one own plate, when ready, steamy hot rice is served one each plates. And the joyfully moment begins! We use the middle spoon to take a bit (spoonful) of the course we want, put it on to our own plate, leave the middle spoon at the same dish it is taken from originally. Then we eat that bit of food together with the rice at once, meaning... we use the fork (left hand) to scrape food and rice on to the spoon (right hand) half and half. That's one bite. And that's how we enjoy each course - bit by bit.
Unlike the western style, soup is eaten with other dishes, not before. Soup is set in one big bowl and a bigger type of middle spoon provided for sharing. Each person has one own much smaller bowl. Same thing, we use the middle spoon, take the soup only a couple of spoonful (considering we all share, leave some for everyone to enjoy too). And the concept of having at least one soup dish for each full meal is that the soup helps clearing throat as rice can be very dry. Or some courses taste really 'sharp', and soup helps soothing tongues (haha... sounds funny but it works really nicely). I remember growing up being taught all the time not to drink while eating. Though drink is served anyway, we don't drink before or during meal.

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