Larb Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes concurrently
Serves: 4
Ingredients Needed
- 50g/1.7oz raw glutinous rice
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 4 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 40g/1.4oz caster or palm sugar
- 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
- 500g/1.1lb chicken or pork mince
- Salt to season
- 100g/3.5oz shallot, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1/2 bunch each coriander and mint
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 RICE - First start toasting the rice. Add raw rice (50g/1.7oz raw glutinous rice) into a dry medium saucepan (no oil added) on medium heat tossing frequently. When the rice becomes evenly golden remove from the heat and cool for a couple of minutes. Then place in a spice grinder to grind to a powder. Set aside.
Step 2 COOK - While the rice is roasting I get onto the next step. Heat a large saucepan on medium heat and add the oil (2 tablespoons oil). Add the mince (500g/1.1lb chicken or pork mince) and cook breaking up until the texture is fine and the mince is completely cooked through (about 8-10 minutes). You don't want to brown the mince. Add salt to season.
Step 3 FINISH - While the two pans are cooking mix the fish sauce (4 tablespoons fish sauce), lime juice (2 tablespoons lime juice), caster or palm sugar (40g/1.4oz caster or palm sugar) and chilli flakes (1 teaspoon chilli flakes) together until sugar has dissolved. Add the shallots (100g/3.5oz shallot) and the sauce to the pan. Then add the rice powder (from 50g/1.7oz raw glutinous rice) and fresh herbs (1/2 bunch each coriander and mint) and toss.
Personal Note
I love 15 minute meals and because I make this so much I have roasted rice powder ready so it takes 10 minutes of active cooking time to make this for dinner. Timing really is everything. Mr NQN and I were in Melbourne last week basically eating our way around the city. We were staying near the Queen Vic Markets. One of the most famous foods there are jam doughnuts. We bought five, the smallest amount because we really just wanted to try some. After finishing two, we still had three doughnuts in the bag.
We were sharing a bench with another guy and I gestured to Mr NQN that maybe we should offer them to him as we didn't want the doughnuts to go to waste. He was watching TV on his phone and he looked like a chilled guy. So I asked him, "Would you like these doughnuts? We just bought them, but we can't finish them." and he nodded eagerly. Then just at that moment, a woman walked past with a trolley full of her worldly possessions and she leaned in and asked if she could have one. So he got two doughnuts and she got one (she only wanted one). She looked so happy enjoying the doughnut and I'm glad that she walked past that very minute!
So tell me Dear Reader, do you ever cook 15 minute meals? Do you like larb?