Thai Chicken Larb
In other cooking-related thoughts, last night I made thai Thai larb with ground turkey (with an
alternate version being made with small cubes of extra firm tofu for amberite, which was just
as good) and after what amounted to an amusing but useful lecture about proper larb-making
technique by a cook in a Thai restaurant, I used homemade roasted ground rice (heat short-grain
white rice in a pan until it is golden brown all over and grind in a food processor until the result
is a mixture of powder and small fragments of rice) and used this instead of the roasted rice
powder I typically use. The additional nutty crunch made a vast difference. The other secret in
my larb making is cutting the onions exceedingly fine, but instead of cooking them, I marinate
them in the lime juice and sugar for 15-20 minutes before I add all that to the dish (stirring it in
after the meat is off the stove).
Here's the recipe I used, that I cobbled together from a variety of sources and my own
inventiveness:
Stir fry
8 oz ground turkey white meat (or 7 oz. extra firm tofu cut into 1/4 inch cubes)
1 TBS fresh ground lemon grass (also available frozen in most Asian grocery stores)
1 TBS oil
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (to taste)
Cook until the turkey is half done, then add
1 TBS fish sauce
1-2 TBS water if the meat is too dry
1 TBS thai sweet chili sauce (optional, increase amount for more heat)
2 finely chopped scallions
take off the heat when scallions are mostly done and add:
1 small thinly slice onion (already marinated in the lime juice)
the juice of one medium-large lime
1-2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves
2-3 TBS ground roasted rice
Stir fully and serve over long grain rice or long grain sticky rice.
