Sawaddee ka welcome to hot thai kitchen so today i'm gonna share with you a noodle salad recipe called
laab woonsen so some of you might be familiar with the term laab which is a type of Thai salad usually
made up of ground meat lots of herbs really good really popular well this is basically that but
made also with glass noodles it is not the most common type of laab but you can find it at some
Thai restaurants in Thailand usually that serves northeastern Thai food so if you know about this
dish Thai people will be impressed you like a hardcore Thai food country sir alright let's
get started let's talk glass noodles first of all you can get this at any Asian grocery store
usually comes in little bundles like this it's easier to work with if you can get them come in
little bundles cuz they're really hard to separate from a big bunch may not be this brand any brand
will work they're actually made from beans from mung bean starch that's why it's gonna say bean
threads or bean vermicelli on the package so I have soaked these in water for about 10 minutes
just until they're soft and pliable and what you have to do is you got to cut them so they're
shorter otherwise it's really hard to navigate if you got these long things in the bowl so I just
cut them into three four pieces yeah that's good okay so that's that and then the other ingredient
that I like to put in my lab once in is black fungus mushroom does not sound very appetizing
for that's the name of it and these actually come dry you can get it at Asian grocery stores in the
section where they sell dried mushrooms and what you do is you soak that in hot water for about
10-15 minutes until they bloom and become soft and then for this recipe you just need to slice
it up into little ribbons they don't actually have a whole lot of flavor in them but it adds a
really nice crunchy texture so I like it for that but you can just skip it or add something else if
you'd like okay one last thing you want to talk about which is the most most important ingredient
in lab you cannot have a lap without this and that is toasted rice powder super easy to make you just
take raw rice typically we use sticky rice but you can use jasmine rice toasted in a dry pan
keep stirring it all the time until it becomes a deep golden-brown okay you can make this in
advance but I wouldn't make too much in advance is the longer you keep it the less aromatic they
become so I typically only make as much as I'm going to use for that particular recipe so this
now I'm going to grind in my modern pestle you can blitz it in a coffee grinder if you like
you can start to smell it in the air so good this is such magical powder right here so this
is what you're trying to go for notice that it's not a complete powder like flour because
I do like a little bit of a texture in it if you've listened in a coffee grinder just be
careful not to overdo it because you get it too fine very quickly all right apart from that I've
just got a few easy to find ingredients I got some ground pork we still need some protein in
this dish and a bunch of herbs I got green onions cilantro and mint mint is the most
important herb if you only have one go with the mint okay alright let's get cooking this
comes together really quickly so it's a great weeknight mousse so I'm gonna cook my noodles
in this pot of boiling water and the noodles only take about 2 to 3 minutes I'm also going
to throw in my mushrooms in there as well so the noodles are done and if you're not
sure you can just give it a taste and if it's tender it's done I'm going to now drain this
and before I shake all the liquid off I want to put some just a tiny little bit like a tablespoon
back in the pot you see why in a second okay that's good back here now this I'm gonna dump
into my mixing bowl woohoo cool that looks now that little bit of water in there is what I'm
gonna use to kickstart my pork you can use ground chicken by the way totally totally fine and I'm
gonna add my ground pork in here and that little bit of water will just help lubricate it prevent
it from sticking front to the bottom too much but you don't want to put too much water in there
because then you end up with a ton of water that you'll need to drain off and you don't want to
drain off any pork juices cuz that's good flavor you know how I love mini kitchen utensils well the
only thing about it is your hand gets really hot because it's so close to the flame but that's okay
we sacrifice for cuteness so this technique in Thai it's called blue one for those of you who are
interested just cooking a little bit of cooking in just a little bit of water that is done I'm gonna
turn that off and then this goes directly into my mixing bowl along with all the yummy pork juices
cuz in there also is pork fat which is going to help lubricate our salad because as you may notice
there's no fat at it at all no oil no nothing okay so now while this is still hot I'm gonna add what
should be thinly sliced shallots but since I ran out of shallots I'm using red onion instead which
is something you could totally do yeah let's put it all in give that a quick toss and by adding the
onions while this is still hot it'll help wilt the onion a little bit make it a little less pungent
and still while that's still hot we're gonna go in with our seasoning which is very simple lap is
to seasoning fish sauce for saltiness and lime juice for tartness of course this being lab it
has to be spicy so I'm gonna add chilli flakes so the chilli flakes that we use is actually dry Thai
chilies that you toast until it's nice and smoky and then we grind that up so you get not just the
spice but a little bit of smokiness as well or you can just use regular chili flakes whoo that
smells spicy already and I it looks like I only put a little bit cuz that stuff is strong right
before you eat you want to add your toasted rice powder and your fresh herbs and you don't want
to do this far in advance cuz otherwise your herbs will wilt and it won't look pretty and the toasted
rice powder will absorb some of that dressing and four-lap you want to be really generous
with your herbs and that's it dinner is served oh just love the smell of laughs and it's such
an iconic smell till you smell that and it's like yep that is laughs could not possibly be anything
else and this recipe does make an enormous amount of salad but I wanted to use up the whole packet
of rice noodles which usually comes in 40 gram packets because it's really difficult to separate
them and you know so now normally we eat lap with sticky rice but because this already has
carbs in it I find it doesn't need it also lab usually comes with a lot of fresh vegetables a
cucumber cabbage or something but again because this already has the mushrooms and it's not as
heavy as a typical meat-centric lab that I don't find it needs all that as much but you definitely
can you can't eat this on its own but I think it's more of like a refreshing side dish to a
bigger meal but I have been known to just it down to pull up this and just eat it for lunch
lab is such a great representation of what Thai food is all about it's sour it's spicy but it's
also well-rounded with that toasted rice so that gives it I don't know that kind of like rounds
out the really sharp edges of the lime and all the herbs that come through there's just it's really
hard to describe if you've never had a lab but it's just a well-balanced flavor but at the same
time very bold very strong and very refreshing love it this will be a great side dish to like
some barbeque chicken or any sort of heavier meats delicious but you know what as I said I have been
known to just sit down to a bowl this and have it for lunch because it's so addictive so the recipe
as always will be on hot Thai Kitchen calm and for those of you who are our patreon members with
access to the bonus show after the show today I'm going to talk to you about some other more obscure
variations of lab that you can try at home and if you want to know more about joining us on patreon
up to the link in the description below if you haven't subscribed to the show make sure you do
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new video thank you as always for watching and I will see you next time for your next edition time