Laj Ntses (Fish Larb)

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Laj Ntses (Fish Larb)

Laj Ntses (Fish Larb) is a traditional Laotian recipe for a classic dish of finely-minced fish coured in lime juice that's mixed with herbs, spices and sticky rice powder before being seved in lettuce leaves. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Laotian version of: Fish Larb (Laj Ntses).

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

20 minutes

Total Time:

40 minutes

Additional Time:

(+2 hours curing)

Serves:

Rating:

Tags : Chilli Recipes Spice Recipes Herb Recipes Laos Recipes

Ingredients:

1.5kg fresh fish (eg catfish, snakehead, salmon, trout, striped bass)
juice of 4 limes
75g galangal, minced
1 stalk of lemongrass, tough outer leaves removed and minced
2 hot chillies, minced (or to taste)
100ml fresh speamint, chopped
100ml coriander stems and leaves,minced
1 bunch of spring onions,chopped
100ml Vietnamese coriander, chopped
100ml culantro (saw-leaf herb, duck-tongue), chopped
100g rau om (rice paddy herb), finely chopped
100g Thai basil, chopped
4 tbsp Chinese boxthorn (goji berry plant) leaves, chopped
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Sichuan pepper, ground
70g roast and ground sticky rice
lettuce leaves for serving
fresh herbs, shredded, to garnish

Method:

Clean and fillet the fish then remove the skins. Lay the fish on a large chopping block and use a cleaver to chop the fish meat into as fine pieces as you can. This is easiest done by initially slicing to produce smaller pieces then, by folding the pieces over themselves and chopping.

Place the fish in a non-reactive (glass or ceramic) bowl and pour over the lime juice then toss to mix with the fish. When the mixture is thoroughly combined set aside until the acid in the lime juice cures the fish and it turns opaque. Take the fish, a handful at a time, and squeeze out the excess lime juice then transfer the fish meat to a new non-reactive bowl.

Add the galangal, lemongrass, chillies, mint, coriander, spring onions, Vietnamese coriander, culantro, rice paddy herb, Thai basil and Chinese boxthorn leaves. Now sprinkle over the fish sauce and salt along with the Sichuan pepper and rice flour. Use your hands to toss the mixture.

Arrange the larb mixture on lettuce leaves, garnish with shredded herbs and serve.