Some Like it Hot

I was craving for some larb (larp etc. A Thai salad, made of minced meat, dried chilies, fish sauce, limes, and there are a million and one variations.), but I haven’t had this dish since the first time I had Thai food. The first time I ate Thai food it was a scorcher. We decided on something new, and we ended up in a small hole in the wall restaurant. Yeah, I asked the lady to make my dish really spicy, not knowing Thai food is pretty spicy. I cried, sniffled, and wished for some milk, but it was the best meals I had ever eaten.

One problem, I could only remember how spicy the dish was, and nothing else taste wise. Why was I craving larb when I have no other memory about it except for the spice? How was I ever going to know if I had succeeded in recreating the dish? Also did I really want to eat it that hot in the first place? Health decreed that I needed to make a healthier version of this recipe (which is pretty healthy I just changed the meat), and well last minute shopping, and rampant hunger pains decreed what ingredients, would find their way into the larb. the rest, well I would go by taste, and if it isn’t “authentic”, well I am not going to care, at this point.

I followed mostly the cooking light’s Annual recipes 2004 version, and then added some changes inspired by David Thompson’s Thai Food. I added some chicken stock to cook the ground turkey. Yes, we had turkey larb. You can make it with chicken, pork, or beef, whatever suits your taste. I omitted the ground-toasted rice, which I think was a mistake because my larb was a little too wet. I also shredded up some cabbage and placed them on the serving plate, with some fresh mint, so when the hot larb hit, they slightly wilted. I also added more fresh mint to the top for garnish and to give it a fresh minty kick. Over all I liked this dish, but I think it needed some fine adjustments. You can also add cilantro for garnish and taste; I left it out because I cannot stand the smell or the taste of the herb.

LARB
Adapted from Cooking Lights Annual recipe 2004, and Inspired by David Thompson’s, Thai Food.

3 tsp………..Grated lime zest
2 tsp………..Grated lemon zest
1/4 Cup……Lime Juice
1 Tbsp……..Lemon juice
1-2 Tbsp…..Fish Sauce
2 Tsp……….Palm Sugar/ or Brown sugar
4……………..Green Thai chilies minced
1……………..Red Thai chilies minced
1/4 tsp…….Roasted chili powder (Add more if you like )
4-5………….Red Shallots sliced thinly
2 cloves……Garlic minced
1 Tbsp……..Oil
12 oz……….Ground Turkey (Substitute other meat)
1 Cup ………Coarsely chopped fresh mint
1/2 head….Small cabbage cored, and shredded.
3 Tbsp……Chicken stock

In a small bowl mix the first 9 ingredients and mix well. Put the shredded cabbage on a serving plate, and 1/2 cup of the mint on top. In a wok or sauté pan put in oil, and when hot add the shallots meat, garlic and chicken stock. Cook until everything is cooked, but the meat is not tough. The liquid in the pan should be mostly gone. Take the pan off the heat add a little of the dressing mix well and place on serving platter on top of the cabbage, and mint. Slowly add the rest of the dressing. (There might be left over dressing, because you do not want to “waterlog” the salad. If this occurs, eat over hot rice to soak up excess dressing.) Garnish with the rest of the mint, and eat with sliced cucumbers, other fresh vegetables, and rice.

I did not add the roasted rice to this recipe, because in Thompson’s book it does not explain where the rice is to be added, and since I had no chance to experiment with the roasted rice I have left it out.

Sorry no pictures I have left my camera in a safe place, and now forgotten the safe location.

But if you want you can take This Quiz by Meandering Missive to find which winter Olympic games fits you!

Now I thought I would be better at curling, or sledding or cross country….Hmmm Maybe I should try snow boarding again, who knows maybe I COULD BE A CONTENDER…Well maybe not!

I miss baking. I miss even making really bad recipes. My oven has not been replaced quite yet. Yes I will be calling the maintenance guys and squalling and having a tantrum like a five year old being dragged away from Disney Land hyped up on sugar.
I wonder if I will have to go through a 12-step program to get rid of this monkey on my back? I mean I am having mad dreams about baking. Lovely breads, cookies, savouries, desserts come pouring out of the magical oven that does not exist in my kitchen. They will be calling the men in the white suits to take me away HAHA…Ok I listened to Dr. Demento way too much in my youth, and unfortunately cannot find it playing here on the radio anymore. Well I digress. All I wanted to tell you people is love your oven. Take care of it and be grateful you have one, instead of being sad little me. Looking through old photographs of baking accomplishments and failures, like this photo for instance.

This was an olive oil cookie I tried once. Well, let me tell you that I wouldn’t even let my friends taste that failure, but it was fun to bake. What? You want to know what they tasted like. The taste wasn’t terrible, but the texture was like eating sand. It was horrible, but I think they would make great assassin weapons, if you could transport them without them exploding. I mean entice your enemy with wonderful smell of the cookies, and allow him/her to eat one. They would explode in his/her mouth and avalanche down the throat. Then deny him/her any liquid (kind of like that Got Milk commercials they run on T.V.). Well I have digressed again…
This inane post was written lovingly by a tired deranged woman who does not have her oven. So, go to your kitchens and bake! Use your oven and enjoy it for me!!!! CRY
I will have to deal with the evil oven from H.E. Double Hockey Sticks for now. Wish me luck in kick starting things so; I can get my oven!!!!!

Oh and I am terribly sorry about the lack of posting. I cannot lie, I have been busy with school, and DH and berating and fighting with the oven from hell…But I promise (crosses fingers behind her back) to try to get a post up or two before the In- Laws come to visit me in 7 days or so, okay I can’t count I am a biologist not a mathematician, Oh wait I took calculus…. I know I had to learn how to count somewhere in one of those number related classes smirk (Looks around the house…Ummm…I have a lot of cleaning and hiding of junk to do…*sigh*)

I have an alternate blog, which I don’t know if how far I will go with it really, Whether it will be an echo of this blog, but I do have a post on there if you would like to check it out. Cornucopia of Miscellanea This will be my main blog by far, but I just thought I would experiment a little with the live journal blog.

The latest post is about my milk epiphany.

Correction:

Shari I mispelled Miscellanea again on here…*sigh* Thanks a lot m’dear!

Jo of TRULY THANKFUL fame had finally put up a post. She is active, so go check her out.

These are the pictures of the second to the last meal we had with The Rutherfords. They took us out the night before to a restaurant that billed itself as a steakhouse, but did not have prime rib, ran out of porter house steaks, and they ran out of the large filet mignon. To top that off Mike didn’t get his Heinz 57 steak sauce, and most of the steaks were over done. DH wasn’t going to stand for that. He sent me on a shopping trip to…..Dittmers to pick up the biggest porter house steaks they had.

Well let me tell you, we had 3 inch thick porter houses (scary thing is that they asked if I wanted them bigger *faint*), and Dh marinated them good. Well I will just let the pictures talk for themselves.

A closer look at the steaks.

Shrimps for the kids

Jo, frying up the kimchi mandu, and hamming it up for the camera.

The table, set up for the steaks.

Gee, do you think he was happy?

Yes, the concensus is in, we have a happy Mike.

The boys were having a ball playing. Here in the background Tommy is enthralled with a doggy toy. Robby here is teaching us his latest disco moves. Go Robby Go! Oh yeah we also watched the Naughty Girl, Short Circuit and Men in Black. It was an interesting night.