Larb Moo

Name: Larb Moo
Prep time: 35 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 65 min
Yield: 4 servings personer
Cuisine: thai
Ingredients: 700 g ground pork, coarsely ground, not too lean; 1 dl water; 3 tbsp sticky rice, raw, for the toasted rice powder; 4 tbsp fish sauce; 4 tbsp lime juice, freshly squeezed; 1-2 tbsp dried chili flakes, coarsely crushed; 4 pcs shallots, sliced paper-thin; 4 pcs scallions, cut into fine rings; 4 leaf long coriander, cut into thin strips; 1 handful fresh mint leaves; 400 g sticky rice, soaked, see advance prep; 300 g pointed cabbage, cut into wedges; 1 pcs cucumber, cut into thick sticks; 150 g long beans, cut into pieces

Isaan's chopped pork salad with toasted rice powder, lime and chili, eaten with sticky rice and raw vegetables to cool it down.

🍽️ 4 servings personer⏱️ 1 h 5 min (35 min active)thai

Set the soaked rice on to steam while you toast the rice powder and prep the vegetables and herbs. The pork is cooked tender in a small amount of pan juices, then the dressing, rice powder and fresh herbs are folded in just before serving. The crucial balance is that the larb is juicy enough to hold together, but never sits in liquid.

Ingredients

The larb

700 g ground pork, coarsely ground, not too lean
1 dl water
3 tbsp sticky rice, raw, for the toasted rice powder
4 tbsp fish sauce
4 tbsp lime juice, freshly squeezed
1-2 tbsp dried chili flakes, coarsely crushed
4 pcs shallots, sliced paper-thin
4 pcs scallions, cut into fine rings
4 leaf long coriander, cut into thin strips
1 handful fresh mint leaves

Sticky rice

400 g sticky rice, soaked, see advance prep

Raw vegetables for the table

300 g pointed cabbage, cut into wedges
1 pcs cucumber, cut into thick sticks
150 g long beans, cut into pieces

How to make it

Toast the raw sticky rice grains for the rice powder in a dry pan over medium heat, shaking the pan regularly for 8-10 minutes, until the grains are golden brown all the way through and smell popped and nutty. ⏱ 8 min–10 min
Chef's tip Pull the pan when the grains are the colour of milky coffee through the middle, not just on the surface. Pale grains give almost no aroma, and scorched ones turn the whole dish bitter.
Pound the toasted grains in a mortar to a coarse powder with a few whole pieces remaining. The powder should feel like fine sand between your fingers, since this is what binds the dressing to the meat later.
Chef's tip Pound the grains until they feel sandy between your fingers, not dusty. Taken too far they turn to flour, which goes pasty and makes the larb mushy, while the slightly coarser grains give that characteristic sandy bite through the meat.
Drain the soaked sticky rice (see advance prep), rinse it briefly and spread it in a steamer basket lined with a cloth. Steam the rice covered for 30 minutes, counted from the moment the water is set to boil, until the grains are glossy and translucent and cling together in a clump without being mushy. ⏱ 30 min · passive
Chef's tip The long soak is what makes steaming work — unsoaked grains stay chalky in the centre however long they sit. Keep the cloth loosely draped so steam can move through the whole clump, not just around it.
Slice the shallots paper-thin, cut the scallions into fine rings and the long coriander leaves into thin strips, and pick the mint leaves from the stems. Keep the herbs together in a bowl on the side, since they only go in at the very end and must not wilt beforehand.
Cut the pointed cabbage into wedges through the core, so the leaves stay together. Cut the cucumber into thick sticks and the long beans into pieces about 8 cm long. Arrange the vegetables on a platter and keep them cold until serving.
Bring the water for the larb to a boil in a wok or wide pan over medium-high heat, add the ground pork and immediately break it apart with a spoon so it doesn't clump. Cook the meat, stirring constantly, for 6-8 minutes, until it is gray and cooked through with no pink spots, and only a small, concentrated pool of pan juices remains in the bottom.
Chef's tip Simmering in water keeps the pork pale and tender, where a hot dry pan would brown and tighten it. Break the meat up in the first seconds — once the outside sets, the clumps stay clumps.
Take the pan off the heat and pour the fish sauce, lime juice and chili flakes over the hot meat. Stir until the meat is glossy and has soaked up the dressing — it should mix with the pan juices in the bottom rather than boil away over the heat.
Chef's tip Lime's aroma is volatile and fades over heat, leaving a flat, one-note sourness behind. Off the heat the residual warmth is plenty — you should smell the lime lift out of the pan the moment it lands.
Sprinkle the pounded rice powder over and fold it in while the meat is still hot, until the mixture is just barely moist and grainy. The powder soaks up the last of the liquid, so the larb gathers on the spoon instead of sitting in a puddle.
Fold in the sliced shallots, scallions, the shredded long coriander and the mint, so the herbs just barely wilt in the residual heat and still look fresh and green. Season to taste with more lime juice or fish sauce, until the dish hits sour first and salty right after.
Chef's tip The residual heat should only just relax the herbs — fold them in over a hot pan and the mint blackens and the scallions go limp. Season only after the herbs are in, since they soak up a noticeable amount of the sour and the salt.
Scrape the larb into a shallow bowl and place it in the middle of the table together with the steamed sticky rice in a basket and the platter of raw vegetables. Eat with your fingers: roll a small ball of rice together in your hand, press it flat, scoop up a mouthful of larb with it, and alternate between the mouthfuls and the raw vegetables, which cool down the chili.