Passport & Plate - Chicken Larb
Laos | Monday, March 2, 2015 | 5 photos
Ingredients
500 gm minced chicken
2 small red chillies
2 stalks fresh lemongrass
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 tablespoons jasmine rice
1 tablespoon fish sauce
¼ cup lemon juice (can substitute lime)
1 small red onion chopped
1 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves
½ cup chopped fresh mint leaves (can substitute sweet basil)
How to prepare this recipe1. Dry fry the uncooked rice in a cast iron pan until it is golden brown.
2. Blend the rice until it is roughly ground.
3. Finely chop chillies and lemongrass and sauté for 1 minute in the oil.
4. Add chicken mince and ground rice cook a few minutes until cooked through.
5. Transfer the mince from pan to a bowl.
6. Add remaining ingredients and serve with lettuce and black or white sticky rice.
The story behind this recipeLarb please
“Larb please,” I say, Lo smiles and nods, she knows it’s my favourite dish. We’re in Thong Nai Pan Noi a lush, green paradise in the Gulf of Thailand, spending ten glorious days lazing around at the beach and eating the best food in the world.
I chose this beach because it was supposed to be one of the quieter ones. However, each morning I’m woken by the cry of a confused local lizard which calls,
“Big! A bigger bigger bigger bigger, big bird!”
I’m yet to spot the noisy creature, but if I do …
A highlight of each day is the Bamboo Cafe. My husband and I discovered it on our second night and have become daily visitors. The proprietress and chef is from Laos. Her place is small and kitschy, made from bamboo and looking onto lush foliage where a proud black rooster struts nightly. Lo is beautiful with a warm smile. Her small son lounges naked watching TV in a shady corner.
The food is so beautiful I can’t stop taking pictures of it. Everything is fresh and full of flavour. The heat of the chilli is sometimes a challenge but in a good way. The perfect combination of lemongrass, coriander, chilli and fish sauce come together in a Laos dish called, disappointingly, larb. Despite the name I am hooked! I eat the chicken version with sticky rice and I’m in heaven.
One night I pluck up the courage to ask Lo if I can see her kitchen. I’m amazed how simple it is, two small tables, some shelves and a couple of gas rings. Everything is as neat as a pin, with colourful plastic bowls and colanders all over.
A couple of years later I was thrilled to find larb on the menu in a Thai restaurant in my home town of Wellington, New Zealand. Later I tried a recipe that used chicken mince which was very similar to it. Over the years I have developed my own version of larb which varies slightly depending on what herbs and citrus I have at hand. It's a standard dinner in our house, although still a bit spicy for the kids. They get frankfurters with their sticky rice instead!
