Marinated grilled pork ribs, cucumber salad, and “bald head” jaew — and sticky rice, of course — from A Child of the Rice Fields.

It is exciting how much lemongrass, garlic, and chilies go into the marinade! No messing around! And fish sauce, soy mushroom and Golden Mountain sauces. All that and overnight soak plus eight hours on a low and slow grill. We got a serious pink ring with that timing.

Fresh green cucumber salad — I did not pound it too much — with lime juice and pa daek. Thanks to an Eastern European market nearby, we could get bumpy Russian cucumbers with black dots, if you know them. They are not watery, almost have no seeds, and their crunch is louder than that of a snow on a frosty day.

Yes, it’s time to move on to the next recipe in the jaew chapter but I still did not have enough fill of this simple first one.

#food #cooking #laofood #bbq #grilledribs #cookingathome #inmykitchen

Grilled fish stuffed with herbs from The Child of the Rice Fields, an incredible book on Lao food. My red tilapia is not properly folded because it’s such a challenge to get not gutted fish where we are. Fishmongers cut it open before you even take a breath to ask them not to. And even if you do, they gut it anyway. Understandable, since people prefer fish without head and tail:

— You see… it’s smiling at me.

Can you read my frustration? But I will make it to Paterson where people might not speak proper English but have great listening skills.

For this recipe, fish needs a different fold at it has to fit a huge amount of chopped herb mix: scallions, dill, lemon grass, chilis, shallots, spiked with prickly ash berries, pa daek, fish sauce, and sugar. And that mix is not just a flavoring element, it is eaten wish fish a way you’d use salsa.

Stir fried mushrooms I didn’t plan on — the picture was not too exciting. Monochrome brownish gray mushrooms are hard to photograph. Glad I didn’t let that stop me. It is probably now one of my most favorite side dishes — spicy, garlicky, salty-sweet, and so umami from cooked in pork lard. And that mushroom squeak on a bite.

Grilled sticky rice — who needs bread or crackers — a fantastic vessel for picking up saucy bits. We started cooking them on the sticks as the book suggested. The popsicle-like sticks were really not necessary — the patties held wonderfully on their own and did not stick to the grill grates.

Spicy green mango salad — got lucky that our local H Mart had small green mangoes that day. Dried chilies, garlic, fish sauce, and pa daek in the dressing — perfect.

Over the winter months I was going through the soup section of the book. So tasty, interesting, new, and different for me — I didn’t want cold weather to end. Now, I’m onto the ping, tam, and yam chapters: grilled, pounded, and salads.

#food #cooking #achildofthericefields #laofood #grilledfish #stickyrice #mangosalad #mushrooms #inmykitchen #cookathome