Laabour of Love....

Laab, or Larb, or Larp / Laap is a Thai minced meat salad.  Sounds a bit grim doesn't it?  Or even a bit boring and tasteless.  Minced chicken?  Bit too healthy.  What, no lashings of coconut milk?  Well, if you've never tasted this on your travels in Thailand, or your local Thai restaurant doesn't serve it (many don't, my favourite Thai restaurant in Derby, Thai Boran, does a pretty good version; maybe not as good as mine though), I have an easy peasy recipe to share with you.  I cooked this last Friday as a starter and it fed 5 of us, with a beef Mussaman curry to follow.  However, I have often had this as a main meal, serving two greedy people with lots of jasmine rice.  I started out just using minced chicken and have even experimented with mincing my own.  I find the packs of minced turkey you can buy work really well.  You can also make this salad with minced beef, minced pork, minced squirrel...whatever minced protein you can get your hands on.  Veggies could even try making it with minced Quorn or tofu; I've never tried it but both of those pick up flavours really well.
There are loads of different laab recipes out there, the one I give below is a sort of bastardised hybrid recipe that works well for me.  Really authentic recipes use roasted rice to give a nutty, smokey flavour, but this recipe uses sesame oil, which I find works just as well, and saves you messing about roasting rice.
This has so many levels of flavour and texture.  Hot chili, pungent lemongrass and lime leaves, the salty savoury kick of fish sauce, aromatic herbs, the crunch of lettuce leaves enclosing a parcel of tender, meaty morsels.  You suck all these flavours out of the stir fried meat.  Mouth.  Watering.  Quantities are ball park only; adjust according to taste.  Rick Stein uses 5 sticks of lemon grass with the same amount of meat.
Laab:
2 or 3 lemongrass stalks.
4 lime leaves
2 or 3 red chilies
3 garlic cloves
knob of ginger
Roughly chop the above then chuck into a food processor and blitz as fine as you can to make a rough paste.  Take the lid off the processor and inhale; it should be so strong and pungent it hits the back of your throat and makes you cough.
500g minced whatever
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp sesame oil
1tsp chili powder
50ml fish sauce
A couple of shallots, chopped finely
1 lime
A handful each of basil, coriander and mint, finely chopped.
Baby gem lettuce leaves and cucumber cut into strips, to serve.

Heat a wok over a high heat and add the vegetable and sesame oils.
Chuck in the paste and fry briefly before adding the minced meat and chili powder.
stir fry for 4 minutes then add the fish sauce.  Turn down the heat and allow to bubble for another 4 minutes.  Add the shallots and allow to cook a minute longer.
Turn off the heat and stir through the herbs and lime juice.
Serve with lettuce and cucumber, and preferably a crisp, cold bottle of Singha beer.