This recipe comes entirely from the now-closed blog “Le Canard du Mékong,” whose domain name has since lapsed. I tried to get in touch with Phil, without success… After a bit of searching, I managed to recover the recipe and photos, which I am sharing here for posterity after a member of the official group regretted that they had disappeared. You can also find some of his recipes on his YouTube channel, although it has been inactive for a long time. I have kept the original text, added my usual paragraph explaining the ingredients, and simplified the recipe section to make it a little more compact. What follows is therefore almost exactly what appeared on the Canard du Mékong website at the time—happy cooking!
A cold meat salad is always one of the most welcome dishes when the temperature starts to climb. Admittedly, for anyone who spent the summer in France that year, the weather was more likely to inspire cravings for pot-au-feu than for lap ( also written laap… larb… or larp…! ), a meat dish, more rarely made with fish, served at celebrations ( which is to say, very often over there ;-)) with plenty of raw vegetables and the ever-present sticky rice, in northern Thailand, in parts of Cambodia, and especially in Laos.
Purists—and we do not count ourselves among them—will point out that to make this dish, which could easily be called the national dish of Laos, you need a very particular sauce found only there… padaek, a fairly thick brine in which freshwater fish ferment for many months, sometimes up to a year, in salt and rice bran.
Cross the Lao-Thai border into Isan, the northeastern region of the kingdom where many people share a strong Lao cultural heritage, and padaek becomes pla ra. As the story goes, during several demonstrations against the authorities, ordinary Bangkok residents, often originally from Isan, would throw bags filled with pla ra to push back the police sent in to quell the unrest…! And so the edible Molotov cocktail was born…
As you may have gathered, it helps to be deeply familiar with Asian flavors—or to have strong ties to that part of the world—to tolerate these aromas and appreciate the bold, rustic tastes we love so much here …! It is also said that pieces of these fermented river fish may harbor persistent parasites, so there can be a small health risk involved…
In any case, I have never seen traditionally made padaek for sale in France, and I tend to replace dishes that call for padaek or prahok, Cambodia’s own special freshwater fish brine, with sauces that are easy to find in Asian grocery stores in France.
As substitutes, you can also look for mam nem or the thicker, mam ca sac ( the Vietnamese names you will see on the jars ), condiments so pungent they would almost make nuoc mam seem like cologne… :-)) Of course, nuoc mam will still do the job perfectly well if you do not feel like tackling the chore of a full shopping trip…
Because in the end, there is no mistaking it… the soul of this dish lies in its inimitable combination of aromatic herbs, especially very fresh mint, and above all toasted, ground sticky rice, which is sprinkled over the lap. Add one final citrusy note with a little galangal or lemongrass, which grows very easily in a pot here in Corsica, and you have a hearty, flavorful meal that is wonderfully simple to prepare.
The main ingredients in chicken lap
Fish sauce: As explained above, it stands in for the padaek. It brings a delicious umami depth and briny savoriness to the dish
Sticky rice: its texture is fantastic alongside the dish, and when toasted and ground, it adds that irresistible “little something”
Ingredients
- 2 chicken thighs
- 2 shallots, sliced
- 1 stalk lemongrass
- 3 small chilies, sliced
- 3 tablespoons uncooked sticky rice
- 3 tablespoons chicken stock
- 0.5 tablespoon fish sauce
- 4 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 teaspoon salt
Garnishes and accompaniments
- 2.5 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1/3 cucumber
- a few lettuce leaves
- 80 g mung beans
- a few mint leaves
- 250 g uncooked sticky rice
Instructions
- Rinse the 250 g of sticky rice thoroughly, cover with water, and soak for 4 hours.250 g uncooked sticky rice
- Steam the sticky rice for 20-25 minutes, turning it once during cooking.
- Remove the bones from the chicken and mince the meat.2 chicken thighs
- Cover the skin and bones with water and simmer for 1 hour over medium heat to make stock. Strain and reserve 4 tablespoons. Freeze the rest.
- Toast the uncooked sticky rice in a wok, then grind it finely. Finely chop the lemongrass, chilies, herbs, and shallots.3 tablespoons uncooked sticky rice, 1 stalk lemongrass, 3 small chilies, sliced, 2 shallots, sliced, a few mint leaves
- Sauté the minced chicken with the fish sauce and stock for 5-7 minutes. Add the shallot.0.5 tablespoon fish sauce, 3 tablespoons chicken stock
- In a mixing bowl, combine the herbs, lemongrass, chilies, remaining fish sauce, lime juice, and toasted sticky rice. Serve with cucumber, cabbage, and mung beans, alongside the cooked sticky rice.2.5 tablespoons fish sauce, 4 tablespoons lime juice, 1/3 cucumber, 80 g mung beans
