Thai Larb

Thai Larb!

While we ate at Sunflower last week, I saw their special board had Larb (pronounced Loob”). I used to make Larb all the time, but haven’t done so since moving to Colonial Beach almost 5 years ago. It’s one of my favorite meal, bright with citrus and packed with flavor.

So last night we cooked some up. Fortunately my garden has a healthy crop of both Thai Basil and Thai Chilies.

The recipes is SO easy, and also a perfect meal for a hot day. This can easily be prepared in 30 minutes.

Normally I use ground chicken, but you can use anything, like ground pork or beef. But my dinner date came with ground turkey, so we used that.

Brown your meat in a skillet. Since we were using turkey, I added some olive oil for the ‘fat.’ Once browned and crisped up, I added a little water to steam. Normally you’d add some broth.

After that, add, with the heat off…

2t. grated lime rind
2t. grated lemon rind
1T. fresh lime juice
1T. fresh lemon juice
1T. Fish Sauce
A hint of chili powder
1t agave. If you want to use sugar, add it in the ‘steaming’
2-4. finely chopped Thai chili, or the chili pepper you have
1/4t. crushed red pepper

Then add…

1T. chopped shallots/sweet onion/green onion
1/2 C. coarsely chopped basil

Usually this is done with cilantro, but I use basil.

Make a few bowls from some cleaned fresh cabbage leaves. Add the filling, squeeze on lime juice. Eat like you would a taco.