Laap is a top dish on menus in Thai restaurants abroad. Unfortunately, laap has been diminished by oversimplified descriptions, by bland seasonings, and even by an incorrect English transcription, as “larb”.
Laap, a dish traditionally cooked and consumed by men, is an integral part of the village social fabric, commonly served at ceremonies and celebrations, and presented to important guests. The enormous effort required to manually prepare laap for a community ceremony is orchestrated by skilled, talented individuals with years of experience.
When you complete the laap masterclass series, you’ll be fluent in cooking dishes from both the Northern and Northeastern regions of the country! The Thaifoodmaster laap masterclass covers 20 types of laap dishes, in addition to offering 10 detailed recipes. As well, this masterclass features 15 dried spices and introduces you to some 35 medicinal herbs.
Class Content
Laap mee is a laap that uses a generous amount of crispy ingredients. Called khreuuang mee (เครื่องหมี่), these crispy elements are often used in Northern […]
This laap dish offers a slightly different way to use the phrik laap seasoning mix. It is added to an aromatic paste made from roasted chilies, galangal, roasted shallots, and roasted garlic. The paste is enriched with coriander seeds, makwen and laap spices mix, which introduces the desired smoke and umami intensifying elements to the dish.
In the village environment, free-range chicken laap is made from a whole bird butchered and cooked on the spot. All the parts of the chicken are used, with nothing wasted or discarded. First, the meat is minced. Gradually, the still-warm chicken blood is added until the meat is saturated and becomes gooey and moist.
Duck laap, like other laap dishes, uses the whole duck, head to tail – including its meat, skin, internal organs, and bones. The recipe I provide below is modified for home-style cooking and uses duck parts; in the village environment, the duck is butchered and the bird is allowed to bleed completely, the blood is collected, and the bird is then cleaned and plucked.
A Tai Lue style grilled catfish laap which is somewhat more complicated than the Issan version of grilled catfish laap.
