Let’s Larb!

I’m in a bit of a rut again, dinnerwise. I’ll be perfectly honest, I’m not a summertime cook. When it gets hot, I want to sit on a patio or in a park and have the cooking done for me. I needed some new dishes, things I’ve never attempted to cook before, to get me excited again.

Last night was a huge home run in that category. I took a shot at making the unofficial national dish of Laos. It’s fun to say, it’s fun to eat, it’s larb.

This dish has everything I want in a summertime dinner. It’s quick, easy, super flavourful and light. No after-dinner bloat here. The cooktop is on for a bare minimum of time, so you won’t be sweating over a hot stove all night for this terrific dish.

The flavours are bright and sing out. Larb is so easily customizable to your personal palate – do you like more or less lime juice? Less chili? More fish sauce? The flavours are so bold and recognizable that it’s easy to make on-the-fly adjustments to tailor the profile to your own tastes.

I’ll add my usual disclaimer here: I am in no way saying that what I made was traditional Lao-style larb. It’s my riff on a dish that I tried making for the first time, and I was super happy with the results. I’d never try to pass this off as authentic, I don’t know enough about Laos and its culture for that. On with the show!

The big trick with larb, I’ve learned, is the toasted rice powder that brings everything together. With its nutty, toasty flavour and aroma, as well as the slight crunch and adhesiveness it’s provides, it’s really the secret ingredient.

You could make some sticky rice to go along with this dish, it’s commonly served that way. If you’re looking for a light and refreshing dinner, however, you may opt out of that and just serve the larb in lettuce cups as I did.

All of the ingredients are easily sourced from your nearest Asian grocer. So, what are we waiting for? Let’s larb.

My Take on Lao-Style Larb

Ingredients:

• 100g short grain sticky rice (I didn’t have that, I used Basmati, but next time for sure)
• 1-2 heads Boston lettuce, leaves separated, washed and spun
• 454g ground pork
• 2 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and grated finely on a Microplane
• 1 small knob ginger, peeled and very finely minced
• 7-8 scallions, finely sliced
• 1-2 bird’s eye chili peppers, seeds and ribs removed, thinly sliced
• 1.5g granulated sugar
• 12mL fish sauce
• 1-2 limes, juice only
• 1 bunch mint, leaves only
• 1 small bunch cilantro, leaves only

Method:

1. Heat a small sauté pan over medium-low heat. Add the rice and cook for 15-20 minutes, until the rice is browned and has a nutty, toasty aroma. Keep the pan moving, swirling and tossing the rice so it doesn’t burn. DON’T WALK AWAY. This isn’t the part of the recipe where you go to check Twitter to see if JK Rowling is still a bigot (she is). Once the rice is well toasted, tip it out onto a plate and let it cool to room temperature.
2. Once the rice has cooled, blitz it down into a rough powder. You could do this in a spice or coffee grinder, you could use your fancy new Vitamix, or you could old-school it in a mortar and pestle. I did not old-school it. The consistency should be slightly rough and sandy. Set the rice powder aside.
3. Wash and spin your lettuce leaves. Arrange on paper towels to facilitate drying. Set the lettuce leaves aside.
4. In a large sauté pan or skillet, heat a film of canola oil over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot and shimmering, add the ground pork. Break the mince up with a wooden spoon or spatula and cook until no longer pink and most of the liquid given off by the meat has evaporated.
5. Add the shallots, garlic, ginger, scallions and chili to the pan. Stir to combine and allow to cook for 1-2 minutes to soften the vegetables. Reduce the heat to medium if things seem to be close to burning.
6. Add the sugar and fish sauce. Stir to combine, then turn the heat to very low. Add the lime juice and sprinkle about ¼ of the rice powder to start. Taste for seasoning. Add more of whatever you think it needs.
7. You can either tip the pork out into a large bowl for family-style service or spoon some of the mixture into individual lettuce cups right then and there. Either way, once the pork is in the lettuce cups, garnish with lots of mint and cilantro leaves and eat right away.

It’s so nice to find a dish that’s a keeper after only one try. I hope you enjoy this take on larb as much as I do. This is one dish that’s going to be in my weekly rotation for a while, no matter what kind of weather we’re having.