Larb! (Laotian Ground Chicken & Rice)

Larb doesn't sound like the most appetizing name for a dish, but this dish is truly fantastic. It's easy, cheap, filling, endlessly customizable and tastes delicious. 

Larb is a traditional dish of Laos, in Southeast Asia.  This version isn't traditional, but it has the qualities of Larb and is so simple. 

All you really need is ground chicken and rice, and any additional veggies you like. The simple sauce is sweet and tart, made with easy-to-find Asian ingredients.  It's awesome. 

Pickled onions add some crunchy tang to the ground meat and rice. 

You can serve the larb over rice or along with rice in boston lettuce leaves.

Either way this dish is a winner.  You can adjust the spice level with more or less chilis, add mushrooms and/or greens, or any other veggies you like.  My favourite addition is water chestnuts - I love the crunchy texture. 

Here's what you need...

Ingredients:
1/2 a medium red onion
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 lb (around 500g) ground chicken (you can also use ground turkey, pork or beef)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 small hot peppers, minced 
1 bunch green onions, sliced
4 tablespgroons soy sauce
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon Sambal Oelek (chili garlic sauce)
Butter or Boston lettuce leaves for serving
Cilantro for serving
Lime wedges for serving

Optional additions:
Finely chopped mushrooms (cooked with the ground chicken)
Chopped greens such as bok choy, kale, or spinach (added with the sauce and wilted)
Chopped water chestnuts 

Directions: 
First steam some rice and make quick pickled onions by thinly slicing half a red onion and soaking it in rice vinegar while everything cooks.

In a large skillet, heat the oil and add the ground chicken, breaking it up and cooking until no longer pink.  Add the garlic chili peppers and white parts of the green onions and continue to cook until the liquid evaporates and the chicken starts to brown. 

Add the soy sauce, fish sauce, brown sugar and sambal oelek, stirring to combine.  Add the green parts of the green onions and any other additions (leafy greens, water chestnuts) and cook until liquid is mostly evaporated. 

Serve over rice, topped with pickled onions, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime.  Even better, serve it all wrapped in lettuce leaves. 

Enjoy! 

Quick & Easy Pho

Pho is one of my favourite winter comfort foods.  It is widely available and pretty cheap to get a bowl of pho in most places these days.  My medium-sized city has dozens of pho restaurants that sell a huge, steaming bowl of beef, noodles and broth for $8 or less.

But sometimes - like this weekend - it is just too cold to go outside. We've had a huge snowfall in the past few days, so making pho at home is a warming treat.

Pho broth is usually made with beef bones cooked with charred onions, ginger and spices. Serious Eats' The Food Lab has a great tutorial for traditional pho.  I highly recommend checking it out, whether to make the recipe or read an interesting history of the dish.

But I've rarely got oxtail on hand, or the time to boil bones all day.  So this quicky shortcut using store-bought beef broth is a makes home made pho a weeknight meal.  It also adds in mushrooms and greens which, while not traditional, make an even heartier, healthier meal.  This recipe is inspired by Epicurious Detox Pho.

Here's what you need for this tasty soup.  You could double the broth and freeze it for a winter treat any time.

Dak Bokkeum (Chicken Stewed with Gochujang)

For a while now I've been reading about gochujang, a spicy, fermented Korean chili paste, and I wanted to try it but I haven't been able to find it in my grocery store.  

I finally came across some at my local Asian market and I'm so glad I did!  It really shines in this quick and easy stew.   

I found this in plastic tubs in the Japanese section of the store.  There's not really anything I'd recommend as a replacement so try to track it down if you want to make this spicy stew.

Steak with Miso Butter, Asparagus & Shiitake Mushrooms

In the summer we cook steaks on the grill. We do it in the winter too, usually. But this winter the snow and cold has made cooking outside impossible so this is a great way to get your steak fix indoors. 

Sirloin steak is diced into quick-cooking cubes and seared in a pan while asparagus and shiitake mushrooms roast in the oven. Then the steak is coated in miso butter for a rich and tasty sauce. Served over rice this makes a wonderful, meaty meal. 

This recipe comes from Cooking Light. You should be able to find miso paste in any large supermarket or Asian market. Look for white or yellow soybean paste in a plastic tub on the shelf. Refrigerate after opening and it lasts for months. 

Here's what you need for this tasty dinner:

Vietnamese Pork Noodle Salad

I love Vietnamese food. Of course, there's phở, the amazingly rich beef and noodle soup that makes a perfect meal in cool weather. But I also love bún, a pork and noodle salad that combines cool, crisp vegetables, warm protein, chewy noodles and tangy vinegar and lime.  

This recipe is a refreshing take on the traditional Vietnamese dish.  It is very simple and tasty.  It makes a fantastic, fresh dinner and leftovers keep well for lunch the next day!

Here's what you need:

Seared Tuna with Avocado, Soy, Ginger and Lime

Matt has been on a seared tuna kick recently and he orders it whenever we see it on a menu.  I happened to see some nice tuna at the seafood counter this week so I picked some up for him.  It is unbelievably expensive, but I got a small, 1/4 pound piece which made a nice appetizer for us.  Matt found the recipe and cooked the dish.  Great work!  It was delicious!

Here's what you need:

Sesame Pork with Bok Choy

Here's a nice, simple way to prepare pork.  Sauce always makes the difference in a simple pan-fried meat dish.  This sweet and salty sauce is a great compliment to the pork and the bok choy.  

Here's what you need:

1 lb thin boneless pork chops or pork tenderloin
1/2 cup apple butter
3 tablespoons tamari (thicker, richer soy sauce)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon minced ginger
3 tablespooons sesame seeds
4-6 heads baby bok choy (or one large bok choy)

First add the apple butter into a small saucepan.

Add in the minced ginger, lemon juice and tamari.  Bring it to a gentle boil over medium heat and then simmer for about 5 minutes.  Keep warm.

If you're using a pork tenderloin you'll need to slice it into medallions   I used these thin pork chops instead.  Season the pork with salt and pepper.  

Sear the pork in a pan with a little oil.  These thin chops only take a few minutes per side.

Flip and brown the other side.

Remove to a plate and cover to keep warm.  

Rinse the bok choy in a colander and add it to the pan with a little water.  Steam, covered for about 3-4 minutes until wilted.  

Sprinkle the pork with toasted sesame seeds. 

Then drizzle the pork and bok choy with the sauce.

I served this with carrots roasted with salt and a little five spice powder.  A quick and easy meal that turned out great.  

Pork Fried Rice

This is a combination of leftovers so delicious I actually planned ahead for leftovers to make it.  

I had leftover pork from this delicious pork roast, and I made rice the day before and refrigerated it because fried rice is best made with cold, leftover rice.  Cold rice lets the grains stay separate and whole when tossing them around in the pan.  You can use fresh, hot rice but the grains will break up and get kind of mushy.

I used these ingredients but feel free to mix up the vegetables and aromatics.

3-4 cups cold cooked rice

About 1/2 to 3/4 lb leftover cooked pork. You can use pork tenderloin, pork chops or pork roast.  You can cook it expressly for this recipe (I'd recommend roasting or grilling in a hoisin barbecue sauce), but leftovers are quicker and easier.

2 carrots, peeled and diced.

1 bunch scallions or green onions, sliced.

Green parts separate.  

2 garlic cloves and 1 inch of ginger, minced.

4-5 heads baby bok choy chopped (optional).

Plus 1 cup frozen peas, 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons rice vinegar, and sriracha to taste (optional if you like it spicy)

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a wok or large pan.

Add the carrots, the white parts of the green onions and the garlic and ginger.  Stir fry for about 2 minutes.

Dice the pork into bite sized pieces and add to the vegetables.

Add the cold rice. 

Break up the rice and add the soy sauce and rice vinegar.  

Stir in the sriracha if you like it spicy. This amount gave it a big kick.  

Stir fry until the rice and pork begin to warm through.

Then add the frozen peas.

And the chopped, rinsed bok choy and green parts of the green onions.  

Toss together and stir fry until the bok choy is wilted and the rice is hot.

Serve it up in a shallow bowl or plate.

This is a one-pan meal made mostly of leftovers that only takes about 15 minutes start to finish. But it's packed with veggies and with flavour.   Give it a try!