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!