My first experience with laab or larb was when I was traveling around Southeast Asia after college. It's a spicy meat salad (you can make it with ground chicken, ground pork, ground turkey) common in Thailand and Laos. I believe I was in Bangkok with a friend when I first encountered laab. My friend's father's side of the family lives in Bangkok so he (and his family) introduced me to all sorts of delicious Thai dishes while I was there. Since I came back to the US I have tried several versions, including the chicken laab at Wondee Siam down in Hell's Kitchen and a less traditional laab made with duck at Kin Shop here in New York. I have to say the versions made with chicken might be my favorite. But there was a recipe for Shan Style pork laab in my Hot Sour Salty Sweet cookbook and we had ground pork in the fridge, so I decided to go ahead and make that instead of the ground chicken version.
This laab is very spicy. The recipe does warn you to reduce the number of chilis for "less intense heat," But Alex and I both like spicy so we went with the full amount. And after we tasted a bite of the laab, we decided it was seriously in need of some lime juice (which I consider completely essential for all laab recipes, but ours did not call for). Looking back, I kind of wish we had added some sugar as well. I'm not sure if sugar is included in all laabs, but I think a teaspoon of sugar would have really brought the flavors together into that delicious Southeast Asian realm of salty, spicy, sour and sweet that I love so much. As I wrote that I looked up at the name of the cookbook and was like "huh, yeah that." Anyway, moving on. The laab is good. Really good. It's not perfect yet, but it could get there very quickly with a few tweaks. I loved the flavors of the spice paste, which gave the salad an amazing amount of ginger, lemongrass and chili flavor. That is something I will definitely incorporate into future laabs. The other thing that was slightly weird in this laab was that the recipe called for roasted sesame seeds instead of toasted rice powder. We actually made some toasted rice powder for another Thai recipe I want to try in the near future, but I wanted to follow this recipe for the laab as much as possible so we used the roasted sesame seeds as instructed. I'm not sure that it would have made a huge difference either way - perhaps the rice would have held up it's roasted texture and nutty flavor a little more than the sesame seeds, but I'm not certain that you could have really tasted the difference.
Recipe after the jump!
Laab Moo Tai Yai (Aromatic Minced Pork, Shan Style)
Adapted from Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia
By Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
INGREDIENTS:
6-8 cloves garlic, unpeeled
3 tbsp lemongrass, roughly minced
2 tbsp ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
6 dried Thai red chilis (cut the number back to 3-4 if you want it just a little spicy)
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
2 tbsp peanut oil
1/2 cup shallots, finely chopped
3/4 lb ground pork (or chicken)
1-2 tbsp water
1/2 cup scallion greens, finely chopped
1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped
1/4 cup fresh mint, minced
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tsp sugar (optional)
leaves from one head of Bibb lettuce, washed and dried (optional)
Heat a heavy skillet over medium-high heat and roast the garlic cloves until the skins are well-browned or blackened. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Peel garlic cloves and chop off root end. Add garlic to mini food prep, along with lemongrass, ginger, dried chilis and salt. Process to a paste. Add sesame seeds and pulse briefly to combine. Set aside.
Heat a wok over medium-high heat. Add peanut oil. Once oil is hot, swirl to coat the pan, and add shallots. Cook, stirring frequently, until the shallots are tender and beginning to turn golden brown, about 3-4 minutes. Add garlic-chili paste. Stir-fry until fragrant. Add pork and cook, stirring regularly to break up any clumps. Once all of the meat has begun to brown, add 1 tbsp water and stir up the browned bits at the bottom of the wok. If necessary, add second tbsp water (if you're using chicken I would definitely add both tbsp). Allow pork to simmer for 1-2 minutes. Stir in scallions, cilantro, mint, lime juice and sugar (if desired). Stir to combine.
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