Thai Larb Lettuce Cups

Tangy, spicy, fresh and lean. A quick one to whip up and a clear winner with my family. I've used lean pork mince but you could also use chicken or turkey mince.

You can control the heat by deciding on how much chilli to use, we like ours mild so I have written the recipe with less heat. Feel free to add more or less chilli, it won't detract from the flavour of this dish.

1/4 cup sesame oil 

2 lemongrass stalks 

4 Kaffir lime leaves 

3 green chillis

2 cm piece of ginger

3 cloves of garlic

1 finely chopped onion

2 finely chopped celery stalks

800g pork / turkey or chicken mince

80ml fish sauce

Juice of 1 lime

1 teaspoon red chilli powder 

1 teaspoon of sugar 

1/4 cup finely sliced green shallots

1/2 cup finely sliced basil

1/2 cup finely sliced mint

1/2 cup finely chopped coriander

salt and pepper to season

White sesame seeds for sprinkling 

1 iceberg lettuce

Roughly chop the lemongrass, lime leaves, green chillis, ginger and garlic and add to a food processor. 

Pulse until all finely chopped.

Add the sesame oil to a wok.  Once quite hot, flash fry the processed mixture for approximately two minutes to release all flavour.

To this add the mince. Cook until browned.  

Add the fish sauce and let it bubble away for about five minutes.

Add the chilli powder and the sugar.

At this stage check your seasoning. Bear in mind that the fish sauce is generally quite salty so you may not need to add salt.

Add the finely chopped celery and onion and cook for another 5 minutes.

Add the lime juice and the herbs; mint, coriander and basil. Mix well to combine.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Prepare the iceberg lettuce by washing well and removing the end core.  Remove each leaf one by one.  You may need to trim them to ensure you have a neat little cup.

To serve, spoon larb into each lettuce cup.  They can be rolled up and eaten like San Choi Bau.  

We also served ours with steamed Jasmine Rice.

Enjoy!