Jallie's Baked Beanz

Laab (or "Larb", as you may see it spelled) is a type of spicy salad eaten mainly as an appetizer. While looking up recipe sources online, I found variations of this served warm with rice, like an entree. In my family, it was something we had at room temp or cool (not cold) with fresh, raw veggies on the side to cool the palate. Goes great with beer.

I've made this dish a couple times over the years with the help of my aunt. This was the first time I made it by myself to be served to other people. I took this to Khalid's b-day and I think a few people expected it to be eaten like the "lettuce cups" you'd find at P.F. Chang's or as a dip with the veggies. Any way you want to do it...

As a kid, I remember my mom preparing to make this by placing fresh chili peppers, cloves of garlic and shallots into a foil packet and "roasting" them in the broiler until they were soft and beginning to char. I asked my mom about this step and she looked at me in a way that said, "Don't make extra work for yourself... it will taste good without that."

Anyway, as you know, since this is a salad and one of my "throw it in there" recipes, I don't have very good measurements. Add stuff till it tastes good. I did look up several recipes online just to get an idea of what should go in it, but it seemed like the "dressing" ingredients wouldn't give the salad enough spark and tang. I tend to make things too limey, 'cuz that's how I like it. Sue me. This is my version!

The actual cooking part doesn't take any time. For me, it was the cleaning and prep of the veggies. And I apologize once again. Bad Food Blogger = No Pictures. I was tired after I finished making the salad and was more concerned about getting cleaned up and ready for the party. Once at the party, I was going to take a picture, but was thirsty and poured myself a Coke. And dug into the wonderful bbq beef, chicken and fixins Nicole prepared. Distractions... so, no picture this time.

LAAB GAI
1 lb. boneless chicken, minced or ground
3 scallions (green onion), finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
2 Tbs ground, toasted rice
Assortment of raw veggies (green beans, carrots, cucumber, cabbage, Thai eggplant, lettuce)

Dressing
6 cloves garlic, minced and pounded into a paste
2-4 tsp ground, dried Thai chili pepper
1/4 to 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
3+ Tbs fish sauce (to taste)

Preparation:
[1] Place a few tablespoons of raw, uncooked rice (Do not use Minute Rice! Get the real stuff!) in a small pan or pot and toast on low-medium heat. This may take 10 minutes or so, but don't rush it by toasting on high heat and risk it burning. If it does burn, start over. Keep the rice moving (like making popcorn before there were microwaves). Once it is light brown, remove to a dish so it doesn't keep toasting and set aside to cool. I used a clean coffee/spice grinder to turn the toasted rice into a powder. "Authentic" recipes use a mortar and pestle. Use it if you've got it.

[2] Cook the minced/ground chicken in a pan until thoroughly cooked, making sure to break into small pieces. Drain chicken and set aside to cool a bit

[3] While chicken is cooling, chop scallions and mint. Squeeze lime juice into a separate bowl or liquid measuring cup

[4] Mix fish sauce, ground chili pepper, garlic, and half the lime juice to make the dressing

[5] Mix green onions, mint, toasted rice powder and dressing with chicken. Taste and adjust lime, fish sauce and chili pepper as desired. Add a touch of sugar (1/2 teaspoon?) if you think it needs it

[6] Arrange on lettuce-lined serving platter and garnish with mint leaves. Serve with raw veggies

Modifications:
Two "trays" of ground chicken were purchased for this dish, so I probably had more than two pounds of chicken. And I doubled the amount of scallions.

I used a garlic press instead of mincing/grinding it and added the garlic to the chicken while it was cooking. This was to mellow out the garlic a bit. I also used only 3 cloves, since they were big.

Instead of the ground Thai chili pepper, I used a roasted chili paste I had on hand and some cayenne. Normally, this dish should be really spicy, but I tried to make it to suit the folks who like things milder.


Notes:
This salad is AWESOME with ground beef (Laab Neua). Same ingredients and method, just substitute beef for the chicken. If using beef, you don't have to brown it all the way to well done. The lime juice will complete the cooking (like "cooking" ceviche) and will yield a more tender meat. Definitely don't do this with chicken -- that needs to be cooked all the way through.

Many recipes call for buying boneless, skinless chicken breasts and mincing/grinding it yourself since the pre-ground chicken is more fatty. I do wish I had drained the chicken better (or maybe boiled in some water before draining) to get more fat off it. For the convenience of it, buying ground chicken is fine.

A couple recipes I found online called for cooking all the ingredients in a wok (dressing, scallions, mint, etc...) but this isn't the way my family did it. I think that takes away from the freshness of the dish.

Add more mint if you like it mintier. If you have cilantro, toss it in! A few recipes also called for chopped lemongrass, which would have been very good as well, but you don't have to use it if you can't find it.

Presentation is a must in Thai cuisine. Although my aunt would have been appalled at how I arranged the veggies, everyone thought it was pretty. The cabbage was cut in 1 inch wedges and left in wedge form (about 4-5 wedges). I used whole carrots and cut them on the bias -- 1/8 inch-thick slices. Same with the cucumbers (cut on the bias 1/8 inch thick), which were those long English ones with the thin skin. If using a regular cucumber and the seeds are really big, I'd deseed them. And if the skin is waxy, peel it. I cut the ends off the green beans and left them whole.

As always, if you have any questions, please e-mail me!

Next time, I think I'm going to try the foil packet method and char some garlic, shallot and fresh chili pepper. Lots of chili pepper. This variation was missing that KICK.

*********************
Oh! And a big "HELLO!" to Nicole, who I just found out reads my food blog on a regular basis. I'm not sure anyone else does.