"A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch." - James Beard
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!
It's clear if you've read my blog that we love tacos. We eat them every chance we get when we're out and about whether in Mexico, California, North Carolina, Toronto, Niagara or here at home in London, Ontario. And I love to make them at home too.
Tacos de Carnitas are time consuming to make, but not difficult at all. And while you're taking the time to roast pork shoulder in its own fat, it only makes sense to make enough to feed a crowd.
Even if, like me, you know people who "don't like tacos", these carnitas are so mildly spiced, tender, crispy and delicious, I can't imagine anyone not falling in love at first bite.
The recipe and technique comes from The Food Lab at Serious Eats. I didn't make their salsa verde, because I have my own, canned last summer. But I followed the rest of the directions pretty much exactly.
Here's what you need for these amazing tacos. This amount will feed 8-10 people but you can easily halve or double the recipe. I froze half of the roasted pork and then thawed and crisped it weeks later.
This winter has been kicking my ass. I've been super busy with work and other stuff and haven't had as much time as I'd like to cook in my new kitchen (or to write blog posts).
For weeks I was craving brownies but didn't have the energy for baking. I tried to assuage the craving with a mug cake and even a Jos. Louis but it had to be brownies.
The thing is, brownies are very easy to make. As long as you have the ingredients on hand you can whip them up in a few minutes and have brownies within the hour.
Luckily I had high-quality unsweetened chocolate in the pantry and the rest of the ingredients are staples so I was all set.
I've tried many brownie recipes over the years and read the debates about the merits of cake-y and fudgey brownies, but my preference is for a chewy brownie. This recipe makes the perfect brownie for me.
Here's what you need:
3/4 cup butter (170 grams or one and a half sticks)
57 grams (2 ounces) unsweetened chocolate
1/3 cup (43 grams) cocoa powder
2 cups (400 grams) granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 cup (128 grams) flour
1 tablespoon vanilla
Maldon salt (or other large-flaked salt) (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8-inch square (preferably metal) baking pan with parchment paper or foil so the paper hangs over the sides making the brownies easy to remove once they're baked and cooled.
Melt the butter in a medium pot over medium heat and add the chocolate, stirring until melted. Let it cool for a few minutes, then add the sugar and cocoa powder, stirring to combine. Add the eggs, flour and vanilla and mix them in. The batter will be extremely thick, dark and glossy.
Pour it into the prepared baking pan and spread the batter evenly. Sprinkle salt flakes over the top of the batter. This is optional but I think it takes these brownies over the top! You need to use Maldon salt or another large-flaked salt, not kosher salt or table salt. Use about 1/2 a tablespoon to get a nice light sprinkling.
Bake the brownies for 35 minutes. It will be tempting to taste them while they're warm but they will be so much better once you let them cool. And even better if you chill them! For some reason these really shine straight out of the fridge!
Chill for an hour, then cut the brownies into small squares and serve. They have a deep chocolate flavour and a great chewy bite and the crunch of the salt on top makes them perfection. So easy, you've got to make these!
