Now the calendar has finally made the turn to early fall, one of our favorite warm salads will soon be back in the rotation, a Thai-Inspired Larb Salad.
I wrote about this one over a year ago on the fly fishing blog Chi Wulff –
…We actually ended up reaching out to chef buddy Libby in Austin to see if she had a favorite version of larb; she tends to work very hard to reproduce classic dishes of great cuisines around the world, and for whatever reason, our palates are fairly closely aligned. Like her, we tend to lean toward making things a bit more spicy (meaning more peppers here), and love the interplay of the lemongrass, cilantro, and mint in this one.
This has become one of our favorites over the spring and early summer season; it’s great spooned into lettuce leaves and eaten “taco style” as we say down here in the South, or served over a bed of finely shredded Napa cabbage…
Fresh lime juice (it doesn’t take all that long to juice 5 or 6 limes) makes a huge different here, and even though it sounds like a lot, use at least 1/4 cup of a good fish sauce. Traditionally made using ground pork (consider grinding your own pork shoulder for this one), we’ve enjoyed this recipe with ground chicken and turkey as well, or a combination.
Though traditionally eaten while still warm from cooking, on the hot fall days remaining – at least here in “The South”, this dish is delicious cold from the fridge too.
2 pounds ground pork, chicken, or turkey (or combination)
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 cup (generous) sliced green onions, white and trimmed green parts
1 cup shallots, thinly sliced
2-4 tbsp minced lemongrass
1-2 tbsp thinly sliced serranos, Thai chiles, or jalapeños
3/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
Sauce
2/3 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
1/4 to 1/3 cup fish sauce
1-2 tbsp chili paste or chili garlic paste
Optional: 1 tbsp honey or your favorite sugar equivalent
Lettuce leaves, your favorite cauliflower rice, or shredded Napa cabbage for serving
Combine the four sauce ingredients in a small bowl, whisk to combine, and set aside.
Into a large skillet over medium heat goes the meat; break it up as it begins to brown, ladling off any fat and water that comes off. When the meat is roughly halfway cooked, add the chicken stock, and continue to sauté until the meat is just cooked through, another 5-6 minutes.
Now add the green onions, shallots, lemongrass, and chiles, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender and the liquid has for the most part evaporated.
Remove from the heat, add the sauce, cilantro, and mint, stirring to combine well.
Serve over shredded Napa cabbage or in lettuce leaves “taco style” and go to it.
Enjoy.
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