It had been way too long since our last larb.
Larb is a dish that inspires heated and instant devotion. I can’t explain why. It has a funny name and looks like a pile of meat, which it is. It’s easy to make but messy to eat. All of these things are also true of sloppy joes, but sloppy joes never inspired a 20-page thread on eGullet with quotes like “It is spring, and this woman’s thoughts are turning to fancies of larb.”
Larb is a Thai meat salad. The Thai word isn’t actually pronounced “larb,” so much as “laaaap,” with the pitch of your voice falling during the vowel sound, and the final consonant unvoiced. I’m sure you wanted to know that. Anyway, I spell it “larb” in English because it’s the funniest of the common romanized spellings.
You can larb chicken, fish, pork, beef, lamb, tofu, or pretty much any protein that cooks up crumbly. Here’s how I make it. Improvise at will.
**LARB GAI**
Serves 4 as part of a Thai meal, fewer otherwise
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or ground chicken, if you can get decent ground dark-meat chicken, like at a butcher shop or Whole Foods)
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots
1/4 cup lime juice from 1 to 2 limes
2 tablespoons sliced scallions
1 teaspoon crushed red chile flakes or minced fresh Thai chiles (more to taste)
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
2 to 3 tablespoons roasted rice powder (see note)
cabbage leaves (optional)
sticky rice (optional)
1. If you’re using chicken thighs, place them in the food processor and pulse them until well ground but not quite paste, about ten one-second pulses.
2. In a bowl, combine the ground chicken, fish sauce, shallots, lime juice, scallions, and chile. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high. Add the chicken mixture and cook until no longer pink, about five minutes. You’re not browning the chicken, just poaching it in the lime juice and fish sauce.
3. Turn the chicken mixture out into a large bowl. Drain off a bit of the sauce if stir in the cilantro and rice powder to taste. I like a lot of rice powder. Serve hot or at room temperature, optionally with sticky rice and cabbage leaves for making little larb wraps.
**Roasted rice powder:** Heat a stainless skillet over medium heat. Add a handful of Thai long-grain sticky rice (also known as glutinous rice or sweet rice). Toast until golden brown, 5 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Transfer to a plate and let cool. Transfer to a spice grinder and grind to a fine powder. Keeps for weeks in an airtight container at room temperature.
I always tell people, “When you go there, get the larb.”
“What’s larb?”
“It’s cold meat seasoned with every strong flavoring there is–hot pepper, mint, lemon, onion, and more–the more you eat it, the more your mouth explodes, but you can’t stop.”
“Err, ok, I guess.”
Mmm! I think I’m going to have some larb tonight.
Would you do it about the same way with tofu?
Yes, I think that would work fine. Probably it would best to use extra-firm tofu and press it. You might also brown the tofu first for extra flavor and then throw in the rest of the ingredients.
That sounds fantastic. I’ll give it a try as soon as possible.
Ok, so I did give it a try. The rice I tried to use for fried rice powder turned out disgusting, though, so I went to the local Asian store to get some there. I didn’t expect them to have any, so I asked the woman there. She knew immediately what I meant and came up with a packet.
At this time, there were two or three Asian customers in the store.
She asks me, “What do you need this for?”
Me: “Larb Gai”
Everyone in the store: “oooh! aaah!”
Her: “Aah, Larb, yeah, you need that for Larb.”
Me: (smug)
I would have been too embarassed to ask if Wendy hadn’t already asked about tofu, but — while we’re at it, is there any decent vegetarian substitute for fish sauce here?
(And yeah, I know, fish sauce is in all Thai food, by definition or something.)
(Hoping you get email notifications of comments :) )
Hey, it’s dglasser!
There’s nothing vegetarian that tastes much like fish sauce, although you can find “vegetarian fish sauce” at Asian groceries. Probably a better substitute is light soy sauce, such as Dragonfly brand.
Vegetarianism isn’t as popular in Thailand as it is in the US or England, but it definitely exists; there was a popular mayor of Bangkok who was a vegetarian, and there’s a vegetarian society that publishes lists of veggie restaurants, that sort of thing.
I would have thought that there would be a lot of vegetarians in Thailand.