herbs – Food from Northern Laos

Kmhmu fish dishes (Khmu)

5 November 201018 September 2017Posted in Blog, RecipesTagged cuisine du Laos, gaeng, herbs, ingredient preparation, Khmu, Lao food, Lao recipes, soup

This article describes various Khmu fish dishes prepared by the men of Ban Chalensouk the morning after the party.
The farmed fish used are small tilapia – a sweet tasting freshwater fish much used in Laos and bought from the market that morning.

Three dishes were prepared and served with sticky rice – grilled fish flavoured with local herbs and chilli, a sour fish soup and a stew of spicy fish innards. The only thing not used from the fish were the scales. One bowl of fish thus served 20 plus people generously.

Fish for lunch — Tilapia – enough for 3 Kmhmu dishes

The fish were first of all scaled and gutted. The quantity was divided in two, one half to be grilled and the other half to be made into a soup. The guts were set aside for the stew.

Seasoning fish for grilling — Seasoning fish with pounded herbs for grilling

The fish to be grilled were plastered on one side with a pounded mixture of lemongrass, green chillies, galangal, lemon (hairy) basil (pak i tou Lao) and finely chopped spring onion. Salt and msg were added. After seasoning, each fish was folded crossways to enclose the filling and secured between two pieces of split bamboo (mai heep neep) ready for traditional grilling over the open wood fire.

Fish ready for grilling — Fish secured in mai heep neep ready for grilling

The second portion of the fish was made into a mild sour fish soup (gaeng som pa) which had lemon grass, a few green chillies, onions, tomato, salt and msg added.

Preparing innard stew — Adding pak i tou Lao to stew

The guts were made into a stew flavoured with pak i tou Lao (bai manglaek (Thai), lemon or hairy basil), chopped galangal, garlic, chillies, spring onions and fresh mak ken (a local version of Sechuan pepper).

Small cubes of coagulated pork blood were added later.

fish dishes — Grilled fish, innards stew and sour fish soup

In all three dishes, msg and salt were the flavour-enhancers rather than fish sauce and Knorr stock powder, which are more recent influences. The food was delicious – the best grilled fish I’ve tasted!

Coriander, cilantro ຜັກຫອມປ້ອມ pak hom pom

10 August 201017 September 2017Posted in IngredientsTagged herbs, jeow, lahp, Lao food, Lao recipes, soup, vegetables1 Comment

Coriander, cilantro ຜັກຫອມປ້ອມ pak hom pom from Lao seed

This herb is widely used in Lao recipes. The small-leafed, short plant is the Lao version; the variety with larger stems and leaves grows from Chinese seed. It is a standard raw accompaniment for lahp and sa. Use the plant, root removed, as a salad vegetable. The leaves are added to soups just before serving. Use in young chilli pepper jeow. Lao do not cook with the seed.

Steamed green beans with sawtooth herb and either ginger or sesame seeds ຊຸບໝາກຖົ່ວຍາວ soop mak tua nyaow

6 August 201017 September 2017Posted in RecipesTagged herbs, Lao food, Lao recipes, vegetables, vegetarian

Here’s an ethnic variation on the common Lao food, soop pak. Muang Sing villagers operating the community-based ecotourism trekking business Akha Experience taught The Boat Landing staff this recipe when they trained at the guest house in July 2005. Traditionally, this Akha salad is made with either ginger or sesame seed, but never both. Each version is delicious and great served warm or cold.

Serves two to four depending on the number of accompanying dishes.

Ingredients

250 g (½ lb) green beans, topped and tailed; use long, string or French beans
12 cloves garlic, roasted and peeled; cook the entire head before peeling the required cloves
1 piece ginger, thumb-size, roasted and peeled (if not using sesame seeds)
2 – 3 T sesame seeds (if not using ginger)
2 – 3 T light soy sauce
1 t salt
2 t fish sauce
2 T mint leaves, chopped
2 T sawtooth herb, chopped (or substitute coriander, see below)
2 T spring onion, white stalk and greens, finely chopped
1 T Vietnamese mint leaves, chopped
2 T small coriander plants, stalk and leaves, chopped (use only if Vietnamese mint is not available; use a larger amount if sawtooth herb isn’t available)

Method

Slice the beans diagonally or halve them. Steam the vegetable for a few minutes until lightly cooked. Remove to a mixing bowl.
Dry roast the sesame seeds until golden. Remove them before completely browned. Set aside to cool.
Put the peeled, roasted garlic cloves and salt in a mortar. Slice the roasted ginger if using. Add to the mortar. Pound the ingredients together until well-integrated. Tip this mixture over the beans.
Add the soy and fish sauce and gently mix into the salad by hand. Add the chopped mint, sawtooth herb and coriander.
Add the dry roasted sesame seeds if using and gently mix in by hand.
Transfer the mixture to a serving dish.

Variation

Be a non-traditional hedonist and use both sesame seeds and ginger. The taste is great!
Complete your Akha experience by serving the beans with Akha pork balls, ginger chicken soup, sawtooth herb jeow and sticky rice (all in the book, Food from Northern Laos).

Mint ຜັກຫອມ pak hom, pak hawm

4 August 201017 September 2017Posted in IngredientsTagged herbs

Three types of mint are grown in Laos. They look and taste fairly similar, unlike the Lao basils which taste completely different from each other. All are eaten in lahp, as a salad vegetable served with lahp and with Lao noodles. Mint is also sometimes added at the last minute to stews and soups.

Small leafed mint ຜັກຫອມລາບມົນ pak hom lahp mon

• ຜັກຫອມຫໍ່ pak hom hor is a small, mild variety, with long stems
• ຜັກຫອມລາບມົນ pak hom lahp mon is also a small, mild variety, but is short-stemmed
• ຜັກຫອມລາບ pak hom lahp, ຜັກກ້ານກຳ pak kancam is a large, mild variety with long, dark purple stems

Lemongrass ຫົວສີໄຄ houa sikai

4 August 201017 September 2017Posted in IngredientsTagged flavouring agent, herbs

Lemongrass is used in many Lao dishes including moke, soup, chicken sa and op (braised) dishes. Use the freshest stems available and discard any dried parts. Bruise the stems with a blunt object to release the flavoursome oils before adding to soups and stews. When finely slicing lemongrass to be used raw, as in a lahp or sa, discard any stem where the knife meets resistance. Lemongrass is also a traditional medicine for colds and sore throats.

Basil

4 August 201017 September 2017Posted in IngredientsTagged herbs, Lao food3 Comments

There are over 504 varieties of basil, including many hybrids, so identifying those used in Laos can be confusing. Lao like to use small, young basil leaves whereas Thais seem to prefer larger, more mature basil.

Lao basil ຜັກອີຕູ່ pak i tou

The most common basil used for cooking in Laos, rather than for eating raw, is pak i tou. This basil has been identified definitively as Ocimum africanum.Lour. by Dr Somrun Suddee in a full revision of the tribe Ocimeae subtribe Ociminae (S. Suddee, personal communication, Jan 20, 2009; Suddee et al, 2005). This basil is most commonly put in Lao gaeng (soups) and aw (stews), such as gaeng bawt, aw lahm, pumpkin soup, fish moke and stuffed bamboo shoots. For soup, add at the end of cooking. The nutlets (seeds), which produce mucilage when wet, are used for making soup or a sweet dessert. In this website, Lao basil is referred to as pak i tou Lao to distinguish it from the variety in Laos called pak i tou Tai (sacred basil, holy basil or krapow in Thai) or pak boualapha (sweet basil, Thai basil or pak horapha in Thai). Pak i tou Lao has green leaves and stems and white flowers, but the leaves and calynx, which cups the flower, may have a purplish tinge. Raw pak i tou Lao does not have a strong taste; the flavour emerges upon cooking. The stems are slightly hairy. The basil may, but not necessarily will, have a slight citrus smell, but not taste. This basil species is of hybrid origin, derived from a cross between Ocimum americanum and Ocinimum basilicum (Paton & Putievsky, 1996). It freely hybridises with O. basilicum in cultivation; intermediates are not uncommon. In the Thai language, pak i tou Lao is one of the basil varieties called maenglak. A mild lemon basil or Western sweet basil may be substituted.

Holy basil, sacred basil Ocimum tenuiflorum, Ocimum sanctum ຜັກກະເຜົ່າ pak kapow, ຜັກສະເຜົ່າ bai sapow, ຜັກອີຕູ່ ໄທ pak i tou Tai

There is a big, bushy red variety with purple-pink flowers. It has a peppery clove or allspice taste. Freshly picked, it can be tongue-numbing. The green-stemmed variety with green leaves tinged with red is most commonly used in Laos. When put in soup, it is added at the end of cooking. It is used for Thai stir fries; pork with basil leaves is a common dish. In Lao dishes, it is stir fried with ginger or onion as a flavouring component. This basil is called bai krapow, or simply krapow, in Thai.

Sweet basil, Thai or sweet basil, Asian Ocimum basilicum ຜັກບົວລະພາ pak boualapha, pak boulaphe

This basil has an anise or licorice taste. It has purple stems and flower heads and long, narrow leaves. It is the most common basil accompanying lahp and Lao noodles. In Laos it is rarely used cooked. In Thailand, however, it frequently appears in green curries and other sauced dishes. This basil is called horapha in Thai. It is used as a medicine for dizziness. Pak boualapha (Lao) may also be used to identify Ocimum gratissimum called niam in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Sticky rice, glutinous rice ເຂົ້າໜຽວ kao niao

4 August 201018 September 2017Posted in IngredientsTagged herbs, Lao food, Lao recipes, substitutes

Sticky rice accounts for 80 to 90 percent of the rice consumed in Laos. It is opaque rather than semi-transparent like plain rice. High in gluten, it is the staple diet of many Tai and Kmhmu’ people. In the uplands, much work goes into polishing the rice which is unfortunate as many essential vitamins and minerals lacking in local diets could be provided if the bran were left on the grains. There are many varieties, both old, traditional seeds and new, higher-yielding ones. The latter have improved food security in subsistence economy villages and added income when yields are large enough for a portion to be sold. However, they may need more chemicals and be less resistant to drought, disease and pests.

Sticky rice is the most important crop for subsistence economies in the hills of northern Laos even when it is not traded.

It is grown dry on steep, upland slash and burn fields, interplanted with crops such as maize, cucumber, chilli, taro and sesame. Other sticky rice varieties are grown in wet paddy fields.

Khmu foot-driven rice pounder for husking rice, Ban Sopsinh

The rice must be soaked before steaming. It is usually cooked in a traditional bamboo or wooden steamer above a special aluminium pot. Once steamed, the rice is allowed to breathe by being stirred and turned over with a wooden paddle. Turning, allowing the steam to escape, prevents an overly sticky rice. A special woven bamboo basket is used for storing and serving sticky rice. The rice is eaten with the fingers. The diner presses the rice in the right palm to form a small ball to scoop up accompanying food. Dip the ball into chilli paste or use it, along with the thumb, to grab a piece of food. See recipe for Sticky rice for full cooking instructions.
Sticky rice is available in supermarkets and Asian suppliers. Buy young rice which requires less time to cook. Overseas Lao prefer Japanese sticky rice to the long grain Thai sticky rice because the Japanese variety has smaller grains like that at home.

Dill ຜັກຊີ pak sii

4 August 201018 September 2017Posted in IngredientsTagged gaeng, herbs, lahp, Lao food, Lao recipes

Add to soup just before serving. It can be eaten fresh with lahp or added to gaeng and stews at the end of cooking. Dill is an essential herb for aw lahm. It is used in fish moke and fish soup. Fennel leaves, which look similar to dill, are not used in Lao cooking and taste completely different.

Spring onion greens, scallion greens ຜັກບົວໃບ pak bua bai; spring onions, with bulb ຫົວ ຜັກບົວໃບ houa pak bua bai

1 August 201018 September 2017Posted in IngredientsTagged herbs, ingredient preparation, vegetables

The hollow green leaves (greens) are chopped and added just before serving to soups and stews. Both the leaves and white stems are eaten raw with papaya salad and lahp. Spring onions are also deep-fried for a tasty garnish. To make it, finely slice the white part of the spring onion and pat dry with a paper towel or let dry for half an hour, and then deep-fry in 1 cup oil. Drain until cool. Use immediately or store in an airtight jar.
Small bunching onions are also referred to as pak bua bai. They are more common in some parts of Laos than spring onions and are used interchangeably. Many rural homes have small raised gardens in which onion greens and other herbs are grown. Indeed, these waist-high beds, usually about 1 x 2 metres and often on bamboo legs, are a fixture of the Lao countryside.

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Ingredients

Method

Variation

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Lao basil ຜັກອີຕູ່ pak i tou

Holy basil, sacred basil Ocimum tenuiflorum, Ocimum sanctum ຜັກກະເຜົ່າ pak kapow, ຜັກສະເຜົ່າ bai sapow, ຜັກອີຕູ່ ໄທ pak i tou Tai

Sweet basil, Thai or sweet basil, Asian Ocimum basilicum ຜັກບົວລະພາ pak boualapha, pak boulaphe

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