I love food – I love eating it, I love cooking it, I love teaching it, I even love wearing it – – – but thats another blog (yer, Lady Ga Ga, your not the only one who can pull of a serrano ham skirt stitched together with strawberry laces)
I must admit to being dyslexic but with a love of English, O.k I can’t spell without spell check and my diction is appalling, who knows where a comma should go or what “weather” is correct. I can even get ‘title confusion’ in my head “The Tall Stranger” ends up being “The Tall Strangler” a different film altogether! Sometimes I say ‘Park Car’ instead of ‘Car park’. I can never remember peoples names, for instance my husband with tell me about say Paul Smith – ‘Paul who’ I say, ‘the one with the Thai wife, the one with the enormous head or Paul from the chip shop’? I explain to him its like a 6 digit number you might as well be saying ‘you remember 096753’ anyone would still say ‘oh’ 096753 is that the bloke with the tattoo of the frog on his forehead or the man who looks at your cleavage when he’s talking to you’!!!! (purely fictional, incase your wondering) It’s a nightmare if I’m teaching a class of 10 – I have to form mental images of their names in my head like ‘Brian” – imagining a snail from the magic roundabout or just say ‘OY, you with the big nose’ – I don’t do that!!!
But my imagination for story telling is good and certainly my enthusiasm for writing is there – from my teen years writing poetry to my 40’s writing recipes and food blogs. Who knows who reads them but I enjoy doing them. Anyone out there?!?!?!?! I’ve even write 3 novels, 1 cook book and 2 coffee table books – unfortunately never professionally published but I discovered self publishing via Blurb. Hopefully I’ll get round to promoting ‘Jack Soup-Er Hero’ my latest book for children and if I dream high enough eventually I’ll get it published.
Which brings me back to the Food thing – my recipe writing started with www.cookeryclub.co.uk with me as the resident chef, offering all the content with over 1000 recipes to write in one summer way back when. I then went on to write a Monday recipe column in the EDP for just under 3 years, also writing for East for 2 and Triangle still for over 9 years. I even managed a few recipes in national magazines, tons of other websites and various papers. Then last month I featured in Feast Norfolk – (see attached) where I got back in to recipe writing and photography, doing my own food shots.
Way back before Lodge Farm Kitchen Cookery Classes I used to spend my Thursdays experimenting with food, recipe trials and photography. I love experimenting with food – making dishes up or discovering something new from somewhere on the globe. My last find was Larb Moo / Thai pork salad, where you had to sprinkle on dry roasted crushed rice. After several attempts I created my own variation, my own recipe – easy to teach, easy to follow, authentic and tasty.
I’m loving this new website because I can do a weekly blog and yap for a bit – but while I was yapping I realised I haven’t had my lunch yet and I’ve got some minced pork in the fridge – I can feel some Larb coming on.
– – What did you say, ‘you want some’ – – here you go, make it yourself – I’m busy eating again!
Larb Moo
(Moo=pork) – Thai minced pork salad
Derives from the North East region of Thailand but is now eaten all over especially as a street food.
First make your rice powder / Khao Kua or buy!
Dry fry 3 – 3 tablespoons (raw) sticky rice – cook on a medium heat until golden.
Grind to form a rough powder with a touch of consistency and crunch.
Store.
The cooked stuff –
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
½ teaspoon sesame oil (optional)
450- 500g minced pork
1 teaspoon minced ginger
(some larb have finely chopped lemon grass ½ or & 1 clove crushed garlic)
The other stuff –
1 tablespoon rice powder
½ – 1 teaspoon red chilli flakes
1 x small red onion – sliced (or use shallots)
3 – 4 x spring onion – sliced
½ – 1 teaspoon palm sugar (or use light brown/caster)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
½ – 1 lime – juiced
1 generous tablespoon coriander leaf – chopped
12-16 leaves mint – left whole or chopped in half
Garnish
1 tablespoon crushed peanuts
hand full beanshoots – for the side (optional)
extra corriandr and mint or basil leaves for toping! – if wanted
Iceburg lettuce leaves – for wrapping
• Heat up the oil.
• Cook of the minced pork until browned (more grey) and cooked.
• Add the ginger cooking for a few seconds to flavour.
• Take of the heat.
• Add the rest of the ingredients (in Thailand its usually mixed in the same pot it was cooked in)
• Serve with the garnish and any accompaniments = spoon the larb in to the lettuce parcels, wrap and enjoy.
Variations – you can replace the meat with minced chicken, duck or even beef.
Recipe by Zena Leech-Calton sometimes known as ‘935671’ ©