Larb (Laab in Thai)

Thailand's second favorite dish and a perfect "10" on my "can't wait to eat it" foods list! 2 of the ingredients can be made ahead of time and well worth the effort, but this is an easy dish to make once you have the ingredients and you're ready to impress your guests. Larb can be made up of ground pork, ground chicken or ground beef, but my favorite is the ground pork! It's very good for you and involves lots of herbs. It has the sweet, salty, sour and savory all in one dish. You can eat it like lettuce wraps or top some rice with it.

Ingredients:

1lb. Ground pork, chicken or beef
3 T rice powder*
1 teaspoon roasted chili powder*
3 T fish sauce
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup red onion
3 green onions, chopped
1/2 bunch Cilantro
1/4 cup Mint leaves
1/2 bunch fresh parsley or Thai basil

Serve over chopped iceberg or romaine lettuce
or use cabbage leaves to use as wraps

*Rice powder can be easily made and stored ahead of time. Just pour in 2 cups of any type of rice into a large dry skillet and on medium heat stir until the rice turns golden brown. Then grind it in a grinder until it's almost powder, but still gritty.
The dish requires 3 Tablespoons per serving. It really makes a difference!

*Roasted chili powder is make the same way as the Rice powder above. Just add red Thai chili's to a large, dry skillet and roast them on medium heat until they are almost blackened. Then grind them up and store them next to the Rice powder in it's own container. Then you're always ready to eat your favorite dish!

Tom Yum Koong (Shrimp)

This is my favorite soup of all. I learned in Thailand that Larb and Tom Yum soup are the country's favorite dishes and with good reason. Tom Yum soup is a chili paste based broth that is perfect for the colder days of winter. It will warm you up in no time and if it's toned down a bit, even kids will love it. Once you have the ingredients it's very simple to make. You will probably have to make a trip to an Asian food market to find the lemongrass, thai ginger and Tom Yum paste, but it's well worth the trip!

Ingredients:

2 quarts water
2T Tom Yum paste
3-4 green onions, chopped finely
1T garlic
1 stalk of lemongrass chopped finely
1T sugar
Juice of 3 limes
2T salt
1 can of mushrooms (I like to add enoki mushrooms as well)
1/2 lb. shrimp (heads on, heads off, your preference)
4 chopped shallots
1T fish sauce
2 T Galangal (thai ginger) or substitute with regular ginger
1 cup bean sprouts
Lime leaves (optional)

To make this soup it's as simple as adding everything to the water (except the bean sprouts) and bringing it to a quick boil. Then turn the heat down to low and simmer for an hour. I would recommend adding the shrimp a few minutes before serving and returning the soup to a boil for 2 minutes. That way the shrimp won't toughen up so much and they are easier to eat. If you plan to freeze the soup, don't add the shrimp at all. Just add the raw shrimp to each serving bowl and then pour the almost boiling soup over them and let them set for a moment or two. The soup cannot be frozen unless the shrimp are omitted and used for servings at the table.