Laab Gai for your favorite Guy or Gal

This recipe I've probably talked about many times but for those of you who may be unfamiliar it is a Thai spicy minced chicken salad that is usually served warm or cold with lettuce or cabbage. It's a go-to any time our family is testing the Thai waters at a new restaurant, along with the red curry, of course. And perhaps a papaya salad. If the restaurant makes tod mun (fish cakes) then we at least have a clue that it is authentic, at the very least.

One of the very first meals I ever made for Tsu when we first started dating was this. I made laab, papaya salad and red curry chicken, along with spicy nam prik just to show off a little. I mean, why not? If you can do it, flaunt it. He never misses an opportunity to blow my mind with his cooking and I'm so glad I opted to do the same the first time I ever cooked for him. 

Pretty sure it sealed the deal. lol! He was so impressed that I think it sparked an instant rekindling of his own food passions at a time when we were both feeling pretty low from our respective divorces. 

If you don't think food can bring some magic... you best think again. It became our love language before we knew like we knew we were a match made in Heaven. 

So when it came time for his birthday extravaganza this year, this was the request he made. He wanted exactly the same thing and I was tickled to oblige.

If you are in a pinch for time, any weeknight, this could be an easy, quick meal to prepare or even prepare a day ahead if you know your week is a bit tight. He asked me for a double batch and I ended up make nearly 3 lbs of laab. Hilarious, really, but it is an excellent salad served either warm or cold and we quite like it served chilled. Leftovers have time to meld and the flavors just become really wonderful.

Let's get to the magic, shall we? 

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of minced meat of your choice (we like pork or chicken but beef is great, too)
• Juice of fresh lime
• Fish sauce
• 1/3 c of minced fresh mint leaves
• 1/3 c of minced fresh cilantro
• 1/2 red onion thinly sliced
• Dried chili flakes, to taste
• Toasted rice powder (It's just like it sounds, toasted Jasmine rice in a pan until just barely starting to color, put in a mini food processor and ground very finely. It's traditional and important and easy to make yourself if you can't find it or order it online.)
• Finely minced lemongrass (this is optional but it does add something special just make sure its the base of the stalk and as fine as you can slice or dice it)
• Cabbage wedges or lettuce of your choice

Magic sauce:

I call it magic because it is balanced and uses equal parts of these:

• Fish sauce
• Water
• Fresh lime juice

1. Add your minced meat to a cold pan and put the heat on medium low. You can raise the heat a bit later if you want but you are not browning the meat, you are simmering it gently in its own liquid along with the magic sauce below that creates its base flavor profile, which is salty, citrusy, but still very balanced and not overpowering. Unless you love it like that? And in that case, go nuts.
2. Add equal parts of magic sauce. This is your base liquid. Don't worry about too much liquid, initially. It's better to have too much than not enough as we don't want the meat to brown or to stick to the pan so use that as your gage. I start with 2 tbsp if each and continue to add more so the meat doesn't stick or overbrown. For 1 lb of ground meat, you may use 4 tbsp of each. I had 3 lbs of meat this time and just went with a 1/4 c of fish sauce, lime juice and water and that ended up being too much liquid once the meat cooked down. But not to worry if that's the case for you, too.
3. Gently simmer the meat until fully cooked. We want a little sauce, but not too much so you can play with this as you learn. Strain off excess liquid and reserve it until you get it how you like. I reserve it in case I strain off too much. You want it to be loose in the sauce but not swimming in it like mine was, but like I said above, better to have too much than too little. We don't want the meat to fry or stick to the pan.
4. Let your meat cool down quite a bit, strain off excess liquid if you haven't already, then really just toss in all the rest of your fresh ingredients and mix in well. I leave the chili flakes for last as this is entirely subjective. My household consumes so much chili that we make our own chili flakes. That's a recipe for another time but you can use dried pepper flakes like you would for pasta or pizza. Korean chili powder is also an alternative as it's not too hot but gives a good flavor as well if you don't enjoy the spicy heat like we do.
5. Serve immediately or you can refrigerate and serve it chilled with your favorite greens. I serve this family style with wedges of cabbage or iceberg because we like to eat it like lettuce cups or wraps.

We usually also make sticky rice or jasmine rice because that is traditional. But if you aren't into rice, it doesn't need it.

Lickety Splickety - InstantPot Sticky Rice

Please don't be too put off that this is a recipe specific to a particular kitchen appliance. I will try to do a follow up to this post for the over the stove method, but since this is my new go-to, I just had to post it.

Since I am trying to prove the InstantPot's credibility in the kitchen, I do try various recipes to influence the other chef-y in the family. Now, admittedly, I did no one any favors because the first time I made anything in the InstantPot, I made asparagus. It was a horrific disaster. Ruined, and I mean ruined, this awesome bunch of asparagus.

So I've had a little bit of an uphill battle. Me, personally, I am unthwarted and utterly undeterred by a kitchen disaster. I mean, I've blown up my fridge, people, making beer cheese bread. No joke, like shattered the glass shelve that was sadly blocking it's projectile ways... but, I digress.

This, is a HUGELY successful, repeatable and reliable recipe that I am just tickled over. Why? Because it truly makes a more complex task such as traditionally steaming sticky, or glutinous, rice into a set-it-and-forget-it staple. It was a real "aha" moment for me when I made it for the first time. And the InstantPot really did it better than I ever have managed to do it any other way.

So let's get to it, shall we?

InstantPot prep: 
-Instantpot, using standard stainless insert
-Stainless trivet with handles makes it easier, optional
-Stainless bowl that fits your InstantPot

Ingredients:
-1 c sticky rice (If your package says "sweet"or "glutinous" rice, it's the same thing)
-2/3 c cold water to cover rice

Method:

1. Add 1 c water to the stainless insert.
2. Add 1 c sticky rice to stainless bowl and cover with 2/3 c. of cold water. If you have any grains peeking above the water line, push them in the pool with a chopstick or something or they won't cook and be hard little nuggets. No bueno. Don't do this step until you are ready to cook. This rice absorbs water and it may make it mushy if you prep this too far in advance.
3. Place the stainless steel into the center of the trivet and use the handles to gently place inside the InstantPot's stainless steel insert. If you don't have this little trivet, just put your bowl inside. All will be well.
4. Place lid on the InstantPot, locking it into place. Don't forget to turn your pressure valve seal into the closed position. Sometimes I forget and that sucks. You have to start your timer again.
5. Pressure Cook for 12 minutes. Natural release for 5 minutes. Then open that pressure valve up at the 5 minute mark to quick release the rest of the steam. We really want to control the cook time here so that's why I always set the timer for 12 minutes then make sure I am close by to watch the next 5 minutes so I can finish releasing the steam quickly. It's perfect.

Tips: 

You can definitely increase or double the portions of this recipe. The important part: the water in the InstantPot that is used to steam, stays the same regardless of how much rice you are making. Neat, hut? So it's super easy just to multiply the rice and water you need for the rice itself.

If you do double the recipe, you also need to increase the first Pressure Cook to 24 minutes. Natural release after 5 minutes.  I've tried this doubled and it worked fine.

Like I mentioned above, it's best not to add your water to your rice until you are ready to cook. Just what I've found by trial and error. If I prep this too soon, I find it actually changes the balance and make the sticky rice a bit mushy. Not to worry, I just let the rice vent a bit to air out and that takes the mush right out. You'll see what I mean. Bottom line, don't be too proud to mess it up, Mary. Just give it a try and make it how you like it. 

We serve this dish with Thai red curry or Thai mango or papaya salad. It's a great "dipper" rice in that traditionally, you grab a piece of rice with your hands and use it to scoop or push other foods. It absorbs sauces and is just a righteous accompaniment to any spicy, saucy affair.

Jasmine Rice:
Jasmine rice is a more standard long grain rice that is even easier to make. No trivet or stainless bowl necessary as you can do this one right in the stainless steel insert of the InstantPot. Pressure cooking rice is different than steaming... in that pressure cooking requires far less water than the steam method. Once again, the InstantPot shines once you have the correct ratios and process down. Super easy to multiply your servings, too. Same cook time regardless of how much you make, which is cool.

1 c water
1 c jasmine rice
sea salt, optional

1. Super key: rinse your jasmine rice well until the water runs clean. A must whether steaming or doing this in the InstantPot. AND. Do not add your water ahead of time. Just like above, when making sticky rice, you must do this and immediately begin the cooking process or it will goof it all up and be mushy. Trust me.
2. Pressure Cook for 3 minutes and natural steam release for 10 minutes (which basically means you do nothing and just wait 10 more minutes once the 3 minute pressure cook is complete). 
3. Manually release the steam, turning your steam valve to open away from your face, hopefully. Always be careful when venting so stand back; be smart. Perfectly safe to release the vent on your InstantPot as long as you don't stand over it like a dummy.
4. Open the lid immediately and fluff with a fork. This releases any excess moisture and you can put the lid back on to keep warm once you've finished the cook. 

Thai Red Curry with Southern Fried Smoked Duck

Alright. Don't get all weird about the smoked duck. The true nature of this dish is all about the red curry. And this particular red curry is almost vegan in that until you add the smoked duck or whatever protein you choose, it's pretty much vegan except for the fish sauce. Ok, guess it can't be vegan, but you get the idea. A blank slate of goodness...

Thai red curry is one of my all time favorite meals. I love it with just about any protein you can think of; I don't discriminate. As long as the curry sauce, which is the star, is right, mama's all right. And I can always judge a Thai restaurant by two things: it's red curry or tom kha. And since Thai food is quite a popular affair in our house, red curry has in recent years, become quite a BFD.

The most interesting red curry development in my household is that out of all the red curries you can typically get in most restaurants, roasted duck seems to be our family favorite.

Our kiddos tried red curry for the first time in New Zealand last year and granted, the restaurant we used for this Thai Experience was pretty fantastic. We do a sorta family date night. A date night, but like with the whole family. lol! It actually became a thing for us, complete with taking the train, the bus or the ferry, whichever suited our purpose, into the downtown action of Wellington.

We'd see an early evening movie and head out on foot for dinner afterwards, catching the bus home because we would usually be just late enough to miss our last ferry but definitely on time for the last bus home to Day's Bay. Yep, the whole family riding the bus. Hilarious and super entertaining, not just for me, but for everyone else on the bus as well. But memories like that... priceless; definitely something we all remember quite fondly.

And Roasted Duck Curry was always the highlight of the Saturday family date night if Thai food was the craving of the day. And it often was.

Recently, while debating the eternal "What's for dinner?" question, our middle son asked why we couldn't just make roasted duck curry at home. Oh, and sticky rice.  Can't forget the sticky rice.  And thus another inspirational culinary challenge was ignited.  All systems a-go.

Except we'd never really made roasted duck before.  Hence, our inspiration for this family favorite became the bar and the bar was rather high. Lucky for us, Costco carries the quack.

Unthwarted by the newness of this particular bird, we just aim for what we know best. Our smoker. But Tsunami doesn't just smoke this lovely little ducky, he brines it in our fermented pickled pepper brine from one of our hot sauce batches. He also throws in some aromatics like lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and ginger. All of which, is grown organically in our garden. If you don't have this kinda malarkey going on in your kitchen, totally ok. This brine is really just a very light water, salt, vinegar mixture. You could easily get away with white wine. ;)

Once our bird was brined for 24 hours, it was removed, patted dry and thanks was given because that bird was about to get smoked with cherry and mesquite then, wait for it...deep fried. Just like a good 'ol Southern Thanksgiving turkey, y'all!  All I can say about this is that this feathered friend nearly didn't make it to the curry, even though it was simmering low and slow on the stove. Yep, Southern Fried Smoke Duck was now in a class all it's own and could definitely be the ultimate scene-stealer. So good you might slap yo' mama and yo' papa if they tried to take too much of a nibble!

If you do not have access to duck and you prefer something more familiar like roasted (even rotisserie) chicken, then by all means, let that protein choice reign supreme. But... if you are a little daring... stretch, my friend and grab yo'self some duck. Splurge and indulge on something extraordinary once in a while. Even if you don't know what the hell you are doing, seriously.

As I said earlier, before I got off the quacking track here, the real star of this show is the red curry. So let me not dally dally any further.

Thai Red Curry Sauce:

• 1 tbsp Thai red curry paste (more or less to taste, we use about 4 heaping tbsp!)
• 1 tbsp palm sugar or to taste
  
  **This seems to be an important, if not key, ratio. Doesn't matter how much curry paste you use if you stick to the same ratio of palm sugar. Start with 1 tbsp of each and never add more curry paste or palm sugar until the previous bit has been completely dissolved and incorporated.
• 1 cup or so of coconut cream (I buy mine in the tetrapaks at the Asian grocery store)
• 2 13.5 oz cans of coconut milk
• 1 stalk of lemongrass, bottom 8 inches or so
• 4-5 fresh or frozen kaffir leaves (fresh are always more fragrant)
• 1 carrot, washed and sliced on the diagonal
• 1 c green bell pepper, cut into 1 inch chunks
• 1 c red grape cherry tomatoes, washed and left whole
• 1 sweet onion, sliced
• 1 c fresh pineapple or pitted lychee, optional
• 8 tbsp of fish sauce
• 8 tbsp fresh lime juice
• Fresh Thai basil and/or cilantro to garnish
• Fresh Thai chilis, optional
• And drum roll.... protein of your choosing

How to... make curry sauce

1. In a heavy bottom soup pot, fry your curry paste on medium, stirring constantly so as not to burn. Once it has heated through, it will begin releasing oils. 
2. Add in your matching tablespoon of palm sugar, still stirring. Turn down your heat to low if it seems like the curry is getting too hot too fast. The palm sugar just needs time to incorporate a bit.
   *I buy palm sugar in large disks or in small jars. If you can only find the disk form, it is so easy to grate with a hand grater or microplane. I can find the scoopable kind in little plastic tubs at my Asian grocery store, which works great too. If you can't find palm sugar (and yes, it's worth the effort and keeps a very very long time), you could substitute light brown sugar or regular sugar.
3. Add 1 can of coconut milk, stirring continuously to incorporate. Once it has been incorporated, you can add the second can. If you need more curry paste, add it and it's matching palm sugar, remembering your one to one ratio. Always make sure it is dissolved before adding more curry paste and/or palm sugar. We like this ration but if you find it is a tad too sweet, back off the palm sugar. Same is true of the red curry. This is really made to taste.
4. Add lime juice and fish sauce.
5. Add your aromatics. I take the lemongrass stalk and bash the crap out of the root end with the back of my chef knife or meat tenderizer. This releases the oils and will perfume the curry so nicely. Leaving the stalk in tact also makes it easier to remove prior to serving. 
6. Crush your kaffir lime leaves in your hand by rolling them a bit. This also releases the oils in the leaves. Add them to your curry. I leave them whole to make it easier to remove although some just leave these in even during serving. Personally, I don't like to serve anything that isn't digestible just in case you, too, have a goofball at the table that might try to eat it. Just sayin...
7. Add your coconut cream, stirring well. Let curry sauce continue to simmer on med-low, turning down heat if it gets too hot.
8. At this point, I usually start my jasmine or sticky rice. I'll link my Instapot (love this!) recipe for foolproof glutinous (sticky) rice soon but we either serve this with jasmine, sticky or an aged Basmati rice.
9. I prep the rest of the ingredients, including the veggies and fruit, but won't add them to the curry until about 8-10 minutes just prior to serving. That's just me. I like a crunchy vegetable with texture but you can cook your veggies to your own taste.

Serve over a bed of jasmine or Basmati rice and add your sliced duck or chicky in a dazzling way on top. Or not... If you are making sticky rice, we usually serve that on the side as some prefer to dip their rice into their curry. It's a personal preference kinda jam. 

*A note about curry paste:

Sure, you can make your own and I highly recommend that you do. I also have a kicking recipe for homemade red curry paste but I haven't tried it yet. But when I do... look the f out. In the meantime, (not even I have the time for all my kitchen lab fantasies) do what I do every time and use this or your favorite pre-made paste.

I have a vacuum sealer so I will reseal my curry paste after every use just to keep it from oxidizing and to keep it fresh until I can use the whole container up. Works pretty well.