Pork larb

Pork mince in the fridge, red onion from the garden, coriander on the window sill and an almost past it lime needing to be used - only one thing to make... larb.

You will find larb on the menu of most Thai restaurants (although it is actually the national dish of Laos) and it is basically a mince salad dish (with either pork, chicken or beef mince used) with herbs, chilli, lime, fish sauce and usually served on lettuce and with rice.

The recipe below serves one person (yes, I made Elliot pork burgers with his portion of the mince as despite him actually inquiring what larb was, the explanation did not seem to meet with much approval and when I said "or burgers.." well, we all know what happened).

UPDATE: I made this again and this time was not so generous with the alternative - it was larb or a frozen pizza (personally I am shocked the latter was not chosen). It went down surprisingly well so alternatives will not be offered in the future.

So double this recipe for two people:

• 150g pork mince
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp vege oil
• 1/8 red onion, finely sliced
• Handful of coriander leaves and stalks, chopped
• 1 tsp lemongrass, finely chopped
• 2 Tb mint, finely chopped (I had some yummy Vietnamese mint from Mams)
• Small clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 big red chilli, finely chopped (I used one of our pickled ones)
• 1 1/2 Tb toasted peanuts, cut up roughly
• 1 Tb fish sauce
• 2 tsp lime juice
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 1 spring onion, chopped
• Sprinkle of sesame seeds

• Heat both oils over a medium heat.
• Add the garlic, chillies and onion and saute for a couple of minutes
• Add the mince, breaking it up and cook until brown.

• In the meantime mix the lime juice, fish sauce and brown sugar together until the sugar dissolves.
• Add the coriander,mint, lemongrass and peanuts to the mince and stir through.

• Pour over half of the lime/fish sauce/sugar mix, mix through and cook for a couple of minutes.
• All done! Well after I tasted it it wasn't spicy enough so I added a few drops of habanero sauce.
• You can serve it as you please - with rice, in lettuce cups with grated carrot, you could put it in a wrap for a yummy Asian pork burrito.
• Once served up pour over the second half of the lime sauce mix.

I chose to serve mine in a big bowl with lots of salad so I finely sliced some lettuce and raw cabbage, grated some carrot, added mung beans and a bit of cucumber and put the larb on top.

Cut some spring onions over the top and sprinkle the sesame seeds over and you've got yourself a very tasty, very quick and easy and rather healthy meal.