Larb (pork or chicken)
Thai Style Salad - Usually eaten with lots of rice
Recipe Posted on 24th July, 2004
Last Updated on 4th September, 2004
Recipe Source: I got this recipe off the Thai lady that used to run Mekong Thai Restaurant on the corner of Victoria and Stuart Highways, Katherine, NT. Matthew rated her restaurant the best Thai restaurant in Australia, but when I got there to verify this, she'd already sold out to a stodgy Australian Chinese place.
Not being one to let the scent of a good meal escape me, I finally found the lady that used to own the place and do the cooking. This lady and her husband now own and run the Outback Disposals next door to their previous restaurant. When I found her, I quizzed her for this recipe. Not only did she give me three awesome recipes, she also gave me heaps of lemongrass, lime leaves and basil out of her garden! What a legend! So if you need camping gear in Katherine, go to Outback Disposals and it just might come with a recipe if you're lucky! In the long term, this lady is thinking of giving Thai cooking lessons, so make sure you ask when you go through town.
Served with rice, this recipe will feed 2 people as a main course.
Ingredients
1 cup (250g) pork or chicken mince, mixed with a pinch of salt
2 tsp ground roasted glutinous rice - see note below
3 coriander plants (leaves and upper stems only), chopped
1 tbsp fine spring onion slices
4 to 5 thin slices of red Spanish onion, broken up and roughly chopped
1 lime leaf, very finely chopped (lime leaves grow in doubles with two leaves on each stem)
4 to 5 thin slices off a lemon grass stork (white part only), finely chopped
1 cm³ piece of young ginger root tip, very finely chopped
1 clove of Thai pickled garlic (see asian grocer)
leaves off a few storks of mint
Chilli powder or chopped fresh chilli to suit your taste
1 tbsp pickled garlic liquid
2 tbsp lime juice (the juice from 1 to 2 limes)
5 tsp fish sauce
Method
Mix up the dressing by combining the pickled garlic liquid, lime juice and fish sauce.
Place all other ingredients except mince meat and dressing in a bowl. Stir fry mince meat (pork or chicken) in a non-stick pan with a little oil until well cooked. Add cooked meat to the mixed salad ingredients and pour over about three quarters of the salad dressing. Mix well. Taste and add the remainder of the dressing, or either a little more lime or fish sauce to taste.
Note: To make the roasted rice, place some glutinous rice in a clean dry frying pan over a medium heat and stir/toss very regularly until the rice has turned golden brown. Remove from heat and grind with a mortar and pestle or an electric spice/coffee grinder. Don't grind it to a fine powder though, you want the texture to remain quite gritty.
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