Larb Gai is one of our favourite Thai dishes for eating out or eating at home. You can make it with your choice of mince but our favourites are chicken or pork. The sauce is a combination of sweet, sour and tangy made with brown sugar, fish sauce and lime. Chilies are optional but really a great addition if you like a little heat.
The fresh herbs add more flavour to the dish but if you have little ones who don’t eat ‘green stuff’ there is a step you can remove meat and sauce for them. I purchase a sleeve of fresh herbs from the supermarket. They don’t have a weight on them but are roughly 60g for leaves and stalks and I use about 20g of the leaves chopped. Once made it can be served with rice, in whole lettuce leaves as cups or in a salad. After years of cooking rice in electric rice cookers, microwave containers or on the stove I have been fully converted to the microwave rice bags. Our preferred rice is a family bag of brown rice, ready in two minutes 30 seconds and no cleaning up needed!
This dish can be made in 30minutes from starting prep work to serving so a great mid week dinner option. You can use pre-chopped herbs from a brand such as Gourmet Garden. I normally use their lemon grass as it the cheapest option and always available. Double the recipe for left over options!
ingredients
2 teaspoons corn flour
2 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons fish sauce
1 lime (juiced)
2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 Tablespoon oil
1 Tablespoon fresh ginger
2 gloves garlic minced
2 teaspoon lemon grass diced
* Optional 1 red chili – deseeded and diced to be included in cooking or sliced for garnish
500g mince meat of your choice (Pork or Chicken are our favourites)
1/2 red onion sliced
20g coriander leaves chopped
20g mint leaves chopped
chopped peanuts for garnish
OPTIONAL
Rice to serve
Whole lettuce leaves for cups
Salad items of your choice – lettuce, cucumber, carrot, beetroot, wombok
directions
1. Make the sauce by mixing corn flour, water, lime juice and fish sauce in a jar or measuring job. I prefer a glass jar with lid so it can be shaken together.
2. Prep ginger, garlic, lemon grass and optional chili if using it. Heat oil in large pan (I use a 32cm stone sauté pan with lid) and add prepped ingredients cooking until fragrant and starting to brown.
3. Add mince and cook for 10 minutes until meat is browned and cooked through. While cooking you can prep the leaves and red onion.
4. Add the sauce and mix through, reduce heat to as low as possible. If you have children who do not like ‘green stuff’ now is the time to remove their portion of food.
5. Add fresh herbs and red onions and cook for two minutes with the lid one.
6. Serve with brown rice, in lettuce cups or in salad.
utensils
You will need a citrus juicer, grater for ginger, garlic press, chopping board, knife, measuring spoons, glass jar with lid or measuring jug, large sauté pot with lid and wooden spoon for stirring.
