Taking a trip to Thailand

Kyle’s Kitchen

Acouple of weeks ago, Noelia and I went to Austin and ate at a Thai restaurant called Titaya’s. I saw a “salad” that I had seen someone make in a video which looked good, so that’s what I ordered. I put salad in quotation marks because the main ingredient in this “salad” is pork, but you can use chicken. But we Americans put a bunch of mayonnaise on potatoes and call that salad, so...

There are only two ingredients you may have to go out of town for or order, which is what I did. One is glutenous rice, which you could probably just leave out, and fish sauce. The salad is often called “larb,” but the correct spelling is “laab.”

Authentic Laab Salad

1.5 tbsp white glutinous rice 2 tbsp water 9 oz ground pork (preferably not lean) 3 tbsp finely sliced shallot 1/4 cup mint leaves, rough chopped if leaves are large 2 tbsp chopped cilantro 1 small green onion, chopped 2 tbsp fish sauce 2 tbsp lime juice 1-2 tsp chili flakes, or to taste Make toasted rice powder: Put glutinous white rice or jasmine rice in a dry sauté pan and cook over medium high heat, moving it constantly, until a deep brown color develops. Grind with a coffee grinder or in a mortar and pestle into a sand-like texture.

In a medium pot, add the water and bring to a boil over high heat. Then add the ground pork and stir to break it up until it is fully cooked. Remove from the heat.

Using the pot as your mixing bowl, add shallots into the pork and stir to break up the rings and lightly wilt the shallots.

Add the fish sauce, lime juice, 1.5 tbsp of the toasted ground rice, and the chili flakes and stir to mix. Then add the fresh herbs: cilantro, green onions and mint. (Tip: If not serving right away, leave the mint leaves until serving time as they tend to turn black when exposed to warm food for a long time.

Taste and adjust to your liking with more fish sauce and lime juice as needed. If it feels a little too salty or acidic, you can add a pinch of sugar to help balance the salt and the acid.

Feel free to garnish with some mint leaves and fried dried chilies. Serve with some fresh crunchy vegetables and sticky rice.

—kwc— If you trusted me about how good the laab salad is and bought the glutinous rice, here’s how to cook it like you get it in restaurants. Even though it’s called glutinous rice, there is no gluten in it or any other rice. It’s sometimes also called sweet rice even though it isn’t sweet. You’ll need some kind of a steamer. Any kind will do.

Sticky Rice

Water to soak rice 2 cups sticky rice (or however much you want to make) The night before you want to cook sticky rice, take your raw sticky rice, place it into a bowl or plastic tub, submerge in water, and allow to soak at room temperature overnight. Alternatively, you can soak for at least 4 to 5 hours, but overnight is best.

Take the sticky rice out of the water (and the grains should be softer and a little swollen), and place into a bamboo steamer, or any type of steamer. Cover the steamer with either a lid, or you can do what I did and cover the basket with a cloth, then a metal lid - just to keep all the steam within the rice.

Add water to a pot with the steamer over the pot (just make sure the water doesn’t touch the sticky rice), and once the water comes to a boil, steam for 15 20 minutes (usually 15 minutes for me is perfect) on a medium heat.

After 15 minutes take off the lid carefully, because it will be very hot, and just grab a taste test of the sticky rice to make sure it’s soft and fluffy. If it’s still a little crunchy, steam for a few more minutes, but if it’s good to go, turn off the heat and either eat immediately, or transfer to some sort of airtight container or basket to hold until you’re ready to eat.

—kwc— If you have leftover rice, make this.

Chicken in Caramel Sauce 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar 1/4 cup water 1/4 cup fish sauce 3 tbsp rice vinegar 1 tsp minced garlic 1 tsp soy sauce 1 tsp thinly-sliced, fresh ginger 1/2 to 1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper 2 small chili peppers, fresh or dried, halved 1 tbsp canola oil 1 shallot thinly sliced 1-1/2 to 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast or thigh meat, cut into bite-size pieces (can use a combo of light and dark meat, if you prefer) In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, water, fish sauce, vinegar, garlic, soy sauce, ginger, pepper and chilis Mix well. Set aside.

Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add shallot and cook, stirring, until brown, about 5 minutes. Add chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned on each side but not cooked through, about 5 minutes.

Stir the reserved sauce mixture and add to skillet. Bring mixture to boil, reduce heat to med-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is reduced by about half and the chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes. Remove and discard the chili peppers. Remove pan from heat, set aside until sauce has thickened and cooled slightly, about 3 minutes. Serve with rice.