First Laap Moo for 2008
With fresh herbs from the Chinese grocery store I bought on Chinese New Year I decided to make Laap Moo later that weekend. I’ve been looking at Laap Moo photos from Laos the last few weeks so I started to have a craving for it. Rather than waiting for many months before I can go home for the summer to enjoy my mother’s cooking I decided to take a chance and make the dish myself. I have to admit that I am a bit rusty with cooking Lao food unless it is green papaya salad so I made a phone call to my aunts in Vientiane and asked for instructions. I found out different people have different ways of making Laap Moo. Normally when I make this dish at home with my mother I would bake the pork in the oven and then thinly slice the meat before seasoning it.
For this time I made Laap Moo the way they do it in Laos by slicing the meat and then chop it to tiny pieces and pan fry and let it cool down before seasoning with herbs and spices.
When the cooked pork is ready, I added one squeezed lime juice and mix it real well. Then I added two tablespoons of fish sauce and mix it real well. Then a half teaspoon of ground roasted chili pepper and later one tablespoon of ground roasted rice are added and mix together. The finishing touch is adding one sliced shallot, Laos galanga, green mint, and coriander to the laap and toss the mixture.
Now the laap moo is ready to be eaten. It was quite delicious for my standard. For those that are used to adding pork skin, liver, heart, and other organ parts, then this laap moo is not quite complete and won’t taste as good. I will have to wait until I go to Laos or to the US to make laap moo with the extra stuff in it.
That’s interesting that you chop the meat before you cook it. I’ve always thought that was a shortcut that Thai restaurants like to take in order to get it done faster (using a food processor). We always cook the meat before we chop it. I think the texture of the finished dish is quite different depending on whether you chop the meat before or after you cook it.
I think Vienne from Lao Cook would say that using food processor is a crime.
As far as I can remember that was how my parents and most people in Laos made their larp. But when we came to the US we would bake the pork in the oven and also chicken and then slice it afterward.
For beef laap, some people would chop and some would just slice it thinly. I like it in sliced version since it’s easier to eat.
So, you are hanging around here too.
[...] was having a craving for laap moo or pork minced salad awhile back so I tried to make it on my own. I called Aunt Kian and Aunt Phone in Vientiane and [...]
[...] was having a craving for laap moo or pork minced salad awhile back so I tried to make it on my own. I called Aunt Kian and Aunt Phone in Vientiane and [...]