Northern Thai Chicken Larb, Pork Shoulder Skewers, Sticky Rice & Chargrilled Cabbage
By M&S Food
Published on 03 January 2023
A salad recipe that’s full of South-East Asian flavour and served with succulent pork shoulder skewers, easy-to-make sticky rice and chargrilled cabbage; we love Jack Stein’s chicken larb from episode 5 of Cooking With The Stars, as brought to you by M&S Food. Cooked for South-East Asia Week, Larb is the national dish of Laos but is extremely popular in Thailand too. And it’s easy to see why. Time and servings
1 hrTotal time
4Servings
1 hrCooking time
Ingredients
- 25 g of jasmine rice, plus 400g to serve
- 100 ml of fish sauce
- 100 ml of lime juice
- 50 g of light soft brown sugar, plus 2 tbsp for the pork
- 2 shallots, finely diced and keep a tsp aside, chopped
- 1 large bunch of coriander, plus 25g for the pork
- 0.5 tsp of white pepper
- 1 garlic clove
- 0.5 tsp of soy sauce
- 400 g of pork shoulder steaks
- 1 whole nutmeg, grated
- 1 star anise
- 1 blade mace (around 14g)
- 2 bird’s eye chillies, dried
- 1 tsp of ground ginger
- 1 handful of thai basil, chopped
- 4 slices of white cabbage
- 1 sweetheart cabbage, cut into quarters
- 25 g of coconut cream
- 2 chicken breasts, minced by hand
- 80 ml of vegetable oil
- 2 pinches of dried chilli flakes
Method
Step 1
For the rice powder, cook 25g rice in a dry frying pan over a medium high heat until well browned. Blend to a powder in a food processor or pestle and mortar.Step 2
To make the nam jim sauce, add all 100ml fish sauce, 100ml lime juice, 50g light soft brown sugar to a pan and heat until the sugar dissolves. Remove half of the sauce and reserve for later. To the remaining sauce, add 1 tsp shallots, and a a pinch each of chilli flakes, coriander and roasted rice powder.Step 3
To prepare the pork skewers, blend 25g coriander, white pepper, 1 garlic clove, coconut cream, 2 tbsp fish sauce, 2 tbsp light soft brown sugar, soy sauce, and 3 tbsp vegetable oil.Step 4
Chargrill the pork in a griddle pan until the core temperature reaches 65°C. Rest for five minutes then slice before serving.Step 5
For the spice blend for the chicken, cook the spices in a dry frying pan, starting with the biggest; nutmeg, star anise and mace. Brown for 3-4 mins and then add the 2 dried bird’s eye chillies, 1 tsp of black peppercorns and 1 tsp of ground ginger and cook for another 2 mins. Blend into a powder in a food processor.Step 6
Fry the minced chicken in 25ml oil and season with salt. Stir in the spice blend.Step 7
Once the chicken is cooked, add the 2 diced shallots and fry for a minute before adding half of the reserved nam jim sauce. Take off the heat. Add the basil, coriander and roasted rice powder. Serve with slices of raw white cabbage.Step 8
Cook the jasmine rice according to the pack instructions.Step 9
Chargrill the sweetheart cabbage in the same pan used for the pork. Remove from the pan and dress with 2 tbsp of the dipping sauce.Step 10
Serve on three different plates scattering all with the remaining roasted rice powder, coriander and Thai basil. Serve the remaining dipping sauce and jasmine rice on the side.