I poked through my local library for some Thai cookbooks, and only one of them was written by a chef from Thailand – Anchalee Tiaree, who runs the restaurant Puong Thong with her mother in Chiang Mai. The cookbook is in French, focuses mainly on central Thai cuisine, and boy, there’s some good looking stuff in here.

I’m going to try out the larb moo (pronounced more like “laap”) – it sounds right up my alley. It’s ground pork, poached in bouillon, then sauteed with red and green onion, shallots, parsley, cilantro, mint, lime, Thai fish sauce and khao khua – toasted rice powder. I’m using both chili flakes and some pickled green thai chilies for extra heat.

Wow! Poaching the meat in broth really gives it a nice tenderness, and the flavours from the onions, fish sauce, mint and lime really knock it out of the park. I really love the khao khua, it’s got a great toasty flavour and texture – I’m going to see what other recipes I can use it in. I’m sold on larb, definitely going into the “make again” recipe folder.