Sawaddee ka welcome to hot thai kitchen today I'm making a dish called laab pla
Salmon which is essentially a salmon tartare but with laughs flavor now if you don't know
what laab is it's a type of Thai salad super spicy and tart delicious that comes from the
North East of Thailand and I've been wanting to do this recipe for a long time because I
can just imagine the flavor of laughs going so well with raw salmon like sashimi style and I
was right it is so delicious and super easy to make so let's get started so the most important
ingredient of laab is kao kua or toasted rice powder okay so I've made this a few times but
as a quick review I've got here some sticky rice and untoasted uncooked you can also do
this with jasmine rice but now I'm going to flavor my toasted rice powder with some
kaffir lime leaves you can flavor your toasted rice with lemongrass with galangal now I'm just
going to toast this medium high heat is fine and you start to notice the rice starting to
pop so keep the rice moving because you want the toasting to be even on the grains and yes there
will be quite a bit of smoking that's totally normal all right so this is the color that you
want it to be in the lime leaves have crisped up so I'm going to grind the leaves right with
the right now this is way more than I need for this recipe but you can make this in advance
not too long in advance but you don't want to grind it until you're ready to use it all right
perfect oh that smell Oh nutty and citrusy this is why I love love so much all right let's make
the lap dressing first and lap dressing is the simplest dressing in the world there are two
main ingredients that is fish sauce of course and lime juice always fresh now because the salmon is
so delicate in flavor and I'm not planning to serve this with sticky rice or anything
I'm actually going to dilute this a little bit with water I find if I don't it's it's a bit too
strong chillies lap always uses roasted chili flakes which gives a nice smoky flavor and I
also put kaffir lime leaves into the chili flakes when I made it I'm gonna put some finely finely
chopped lemongrass and when you put lemongrass and salad you want to make sure it's sliced thinly as
possible because otherwise it's a bit tough and fibrous and I'm gonna let the lemongrass sort
of sit in the dressing while I do other things so that the flavor of the lemongrass sort of infuses
into the dressing a little bit and one last thing and this is my own little twist I like to actually
grate some fresh garlic into it yeah and it just add a little pungent a little spiciness of raw
garlic a little bite now I would normally use my microplane so I get it super fine but I forgot
it so this will have to do that did not come out oh there we go and that's it how simple is that
check out this beautiful piece of salmon now I'm going to slice this so I said tartare but since
I'm slicing it I guess it's more like a carpaccio but you could cube it up and turn it into tartare
if you want so I just want thin thin slices so a sharp knife is very important for this so the way
I like to plate this I wanted to lay it all flat and I'm not systematic about it I'm just kind of
putting it down randomly and filling the gaps so the last thing I want to do is chop up my delicate
herbs of which there are many in this recipe so mint super super important herb in-lap and mint
is actually not you much in Thai cuisine and when it is used is usually used in northeastern dishes
snow so fresh and then cilantro now I would have used saw to a coriander if I could have found some
but I didn't so cilantro will work just fine and yes chop up the stems along with it people don't
throw away cilantro stems are so aromatic the number of times I see people pick up the leaves
and throw away the stems makes my heart cry now green onions of course watering green onions to
us are like twins they're oh they're often used together especially in salads I'm going to divide
the bottom half just because this can be quite pungent especially we got those fat ones you
definitely want to have those and when you chop herbs make sure your knife is sharp people if
you chop the herbs and you take the herbs away and you see green juice all over your board your knife
is not sharp enough and you're losing all that flavor to your cutting board now finally this is
my own little trick I am adding what we call Wow coriander and so Puck chilo is what we call anti
and that is basically dill now dill is used in the north eastern part of Thailand and it's close to
Lao that's why we call it Lao coriander and dough go so well with salmon right like it's a classic
combination so I just like to add just a little bit alright time to assemble so a couple more
things some red onions that are thinly thinly sliced now traditionally we use shallots but I
love the color pop on red onions it's a little sweet it works just as well and again just for
color completely optional here I happen to have a red bell pepper in the fridge I'm throwing it
in because it's just so pretty with mini tongs give that a mix the dressing is gonna go in Oh
before before I put the dressing in I have with my toasted rice powder in my dressing and again
you don't want to put toasted rice powder way at the beginning because it'll start absorbing
the liquid and then turns you know a little bit gummy magic powder right to your people
now that gets tossed with the herbs I'm saving a little bit at the end because I might need final
drizzle on the fish in goes right on the salmon I'm salivating already that smell oh my god the
rest of the dressing I am poring over the edges so that all the fish is covered dill spray around
the edges it voila very pretty so this is perfect straight up but if you are like me and you like
to eat everything with rice you can eat it with rice I've done that and it's just as good so it's
completely up to you how you want to serve it oh so good it's spicy and herbaceous you can really
taste all the different herbs we put in there tart from the lime juice but at the same time
it's light enough that it still sort of respects the flavor of the salmon the texture of the salmon
it's soft silky little fatty just everything works so well together and that toasted rice powder I
am Telling You if you've never used toasted rice powder before give it a try and I promise you're
gonna want to put it on everything is so so good so I hope you give it a try it's super easy what
a fresh beautiful dish to serve at a party as an appetizer right I mean that's something you'd pay
a lot of money for at a restaurant so the recipe as always we'll be on have Thai Kitchen calm when
you make it send me a photo on Facebook Twitter or Instagram and if you haven't subscribed to the
show please do so right here and I will see you next time for unit just tiny you soup up you poke
your head there yeah yeah oh you got a practice your swing with I can't that's a turtle sweet