This is a quick and easy Thai salad that will really impress dinner guests, perhaps served as a starter. It has a little bit of a chilli kick, but you can wind this back if you have diners who don’t like it hot. The trick with larb is to not overcook the pork, take it off the heat as soon as it’s cooked, to avoid drying out.
| Servings | 4 |
| Preparation time | 15 mins |
| Cooking time | 30 mins |
INGREDIENTS
- 500 g pork mince
- 1 small knob galangal, thinly sliced
- 5 cardamom pods
- 3 kaffir lime leaves, roughly chopped
- 1 lemongrass stalk, finely sliced
- ½ cup chicken stock
- 1/3 cup glutinous rice
- 2 birds’ eye chillies, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon grated palm sugar
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 limes, juiced
- 2 shallots, finely diced
- 1 spring onion, finely sliced diagonally
- ½ bunch coriander, chopped
- ½ bunch mint, coarsely chopped
- 1 iceberg lettuce
METHOD
- Pour the rice into a heavy-based frying pan over low-medium heat and cook for 5 minutes, tossing regularly. Add the galangal, cardamom, kaffir lime leaves and lemon grass. Continue cooking and tossing for several more minutes until fragrant and the rice becomes golden. Remove galangal, cardamom and lime leaves and grind the rice and lemon grass in spice grinder to make a coarse meal.
- Heat the stock in a wok over high heat. Add the pork and cook, stirring to remove lumps, for 4-5 minutes or until cooked through and no longer pink. It should be soft and not tough. Remove from heat.
- Pour off the cooking liquid into another saucepan over high heat and reduce by three quarters. Return the reduced liquid to the pork. Add the ground glutinous rice, chilli, palm sugar, fish sauce and lime juice. Mix through. Add the shallots, spring onion, coriander, and mint. Toss.
- To serve, remove the outer leaves of the lettuce and coarsely chop. Take the inner leaves and remove them whole to make small lettuce cups. Place some chopped lettuce in a lettuce cup and top with the larb.
