Jeow Mak Keua (Aubergine Dip)

Sabaidee!

As it is my last day in Laos, I thought it would be appropriate to catch up on my blog writing and dedicate today's posts to its dishes. After all, that was the initial promise I made for this trip ;-).

So this first dish, Jeow Mak Keua, is a little bit like a Baba Ganoush or Moutabbal, just with an Asian touch of course. The same dish can also be prepared with tomato and then it resembles a lot what you would put on a bruschetta or serve with Mexican tacos... Maybe I am drawing too many parallels here, but I have come across weird similarities in food preparation in these various regions I have visited. Maybe I am just looking for the familiar. Or maybe people across the globe have just had similar light bulbs when it comes to combining ingredients... Well, going off topic here. So let's start with this first, very easy dish, an aubergine (or tomato) dip. It is typically eaten with sticky rice (hence why you'll find the recipe for that one below too), but you can also dip steamed veggies in it!

Ingredients (to serve as an appetizer for 4):

For the sticky rice:

500g sticky rice (not the same as Basmati or jasmine rice!)

Water

For the dip:

4 small (Lebanese or Japanese) aubergines or 1-2 European aubergines

2-3 chillies (Laotians put up to 15 so suit yourself!)

1-2 small shallots

1 tsp salt

4 garlic cloves

1 bundle of fresh coriander (about a cup full)

Dash of fish sauce

Green part of 1 big (or 2-3 small) spring onion

Optional: you can add mushrooms (champignons de Paris) or a green capsicum

If you are preparing the tomato-based dip, use 12 cherry tomatoes, 2 garlic cloves only and add a squeeze of lime juice.

Preparation:

Sticky rice:

First, prepare the sticky rice as the preparation time is quite long. Wash the rice 3-4 times under running water until it runs clear. Then cover the rice with water and allow it to soak for at least 1 hour, better for 3-4. The rice is ready when you can cut it easily with your finger nail. If you can break it with your fingertip only, you have soaked it too long! 

Drain the water from the rice and rinse it several times. Rinse a bamboo steamer (can be a dumpling basket), add the rice and place it over boiling water. Steam the rice for about 30 minutes. Turn the rice over in the steamer and return it to the heat for a few minutes more. Taste to check that the rice is soft and sticky, but not mushy.

Important: in order for sticky rice to become sticky, you have to prepare a minimum of 500g!

Aubergine dip:

Put the aubergine, onion, garlic and chilli (and/or the mushroom/capsicum/tomatoes if using them) on wood skewers and grill them over open flame or in the oven. If you are using big aubergines and capsicums, you can also just prick them with a fork and place them on the coal directly. Grill the veggies until they are blackened. Allow them to cool and then peel the aubergines/tomatoes/capsicum, onion and garlic. Pound the garlic, onion, chilli and salt in a mortar. Once you have obtained a smooth paste, add the aubergine/tomatoes/capsicum and/or mushrooms and continue pounding until all ingredients have mixed well and the dip is more or less smooth. Chop the fresh coriander and add it to the mix, then season the dip with fish sauce and add the coarsely chopped spring onion. You can add lime juice to the tomato dip, but in the aubergine version, the lime might cover the smokey taste of the former.

To eat the dip, form little sticky rice balls with your fingers and then dip them in the sauce. Bon appétit!

Laotian Laap

Laap (or larp) is considered the Laotian national dish and as such it is served in pretty much every restaurant you go to. It is refreshing in the heat and adds a zing to your day with the mix of spices and herbs it contains. I have also seen it in Thai cookbooks, but then I guess the cuisines here overlap quite often... 

Laap can be prepared with beef, buffalo (as in the photo above - might be a bit more tricky to find in Europe), chicken, pork or fish and vegetarians may substitute the meet with tofu, mushroom and/or potato. 

As with most dishes in Laos, sticky rice is never very far and you can find the recipe for the latter in the next post!

Ingredients (serves  3-4):

300g ground beef 

1 tsb salt

2 tsb fish sauce

2 garlic cloves

1 small onion

2 lemongrass stalks

1 tsp chicken stock

2 tsp dried chilli powder

2-3 bird's eye chillies (depends on your spice tolerance)

2 tbsp fresh coriander (about 4 stems)

2 tbsp fresh galangal

4 small (or 2 big) spring onions

3 tbsp fresh mint (small bunch)

1 bunch of Thai saw coriander (cilantro)

2 kaffir lime leaves

1 lime

2 snake beans or a handful of French beans

1 fresh banana flower (might be impossible to get at home so just leave it out)

Handful of bean sprouts

2 tbsp sticky rice powder (see below for instructions)

Lettuce leaves and/or watercress for serving

Preparation:

First, prepare the sticky rice powder: roast dry sticky rice (unwashed!) in a pan until it turns brown. Then pulverise it in a mortar.

Lightly sauté the beef in a pan with the salt and 1 tsb of fish sauce. Remove it from the heat, add a squeeze of lime juice and set it aside.

Finely chop the garlic, onions, lemongrass (only the white core), chillies, galangal and kaffir lime leaves. Roughly chop the mint, coriander (both), beans and spring onions. If you have succeeded in procuring a banana flower, peel the outer layers (the pink ones) of the flower and thinly slice the white section into a bowl of cold water. Careful, the sap stains and is impossible to get out of clothes (I speak from experience)! Mix all ingredients together and add the fish sauce and sticky rice powder. Squeeze in some lemon juice if you like and then serve the laap with the lettuce leaves and sticky rice. 

Amok with Shrimp

Ah, well, it has been a while... This traveling business takes up too much of my time somehow and I have to actually take some time "off" and sit down to type up some more recipes.

Thailand seems a long way away now and hence I decided to skip most of the recipes from there (the best ones will come later, promise) and catch up with a recipe from Cambodia. Undoubtedly the most famous dish from that country is Amok: a paste that can be used for different kinds of meat. Here, I post the version with shrimp, but you can substitute that with fish, tofu, beef or chicken

Ingredients (serves 4):

For the Amok paste:

4 lemongrass stems

4 fresh turmeric roots (you can substitute a root with 1 tbsp of turmeric powder)

2 finger roots (lesser ginger) - use ginger instead if you can't find finger roots, but reduce the amount as ginger is a lot stronger in  taste

2 small shallots

4 garlic cloves

4 Ngor or broccoli leaves

200g white mushrooms

1 onion

300g fresh shrimp

200ml coconut milk

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp chicken stock

Steamed rice

Preparation:

First, finely chop the ingredients for the Amok paste then pound them in a mortar until you obtain a smooth paste. Heat half of the coconut milk in a pan and add the amok paste, sugar, salt and fish sauce. Cook the sauce and add the shrimp, mushroom, onion and ngor leave. Add the rest of the coconut milk and season with chicken stock. Let the sauce thicken a bit and then place it, if available, in a banana leave and serve with steamed rice.