Malichanh's Khao Pun

One of our all time favorite summer dishes is Khao Pun! Once you have the sauce made, we sometimes keep it for up to a year, this becomes a relatively simple dish. It’s really using whatever cooked meat you have around. Actually, the whole purpose of our garden seems to be for making Khao Pun. It’s why we grow lettuce, mint, basil, cilantro, tomatoes, well, essentially if you can put it into a salad you can put it into Khao Pun. One thing I haven’t quite mastered is the noodle bundles. My mother-in-law once told me that a potential wife, in the Lao tradition, is based on her ability to make well-shaped noodle bundles. Let’s just say I am working on it! I have good days and bad days. Once I get a photo worthy bundle I will post it and try to explain how it is done. It is one of those things done more by technique than anything else.

The sauce recipe below is from my mother-in-law. The rest of the recipe follows.

Makes 1 quart of Khao Pun sauce.

1. Caramelize 1 cup of sugar, and 2 tablespoon of salt together.
2. Then add four cups of water, 3-4 big cloves of garlic peeled and split in half, 3-4 whole red hot peppers (optional).
3. Bring to boil; stir often to dissolve all the caramel.
4. Turn off the heat, and then add 1-2 tablespoons of fish sauce.
5. Cool it off sauce a bit then add 1/2 cup of vinegar (half white vinegar and half apple cider vinegar also good).
6. Now taste it. Adjust the flavor to your liking. I like sour so I put 1 cup of vinegar instead of just the half cup, and add more fish sauce. There are many kinds of fish sauce. Some are stronger flavor than others-just adjust to your taste. I also add some brown sugar for the richer flavor.
7. Finally add a large amount of fine shredded carrots- I usually shred two good size carrots. Also, finely mince the garlic. The peppers can just be left in the sauce but give it a stir every once in a while.
8. Store the sauce in an airtight container in the fridge. Stir well before serving.



As I said above, Khao Pun is essentially anything you have on hand. I often use cold cooked shrimp, leftover steak, and chicken and/or tofu works really well. If you have all of those things then try that too! As for the greens, I usually have lots of basil and mint on hand, cilantro, lettuce, arugula is very tasty, sprouts are great, avocado, sliced cucumber etc. Well, you get the idea…

For the noodles, use somen and make according to manufactures directions. When cooked, drain and put into ice water to chill. Make the bundles by picking up a small handful and in a figure 8 motion drop into your free hand. Place on a platter. Sounds simple right! Good luck! Once you made some bundles, just bring everything out on patters and let guests help themselves. Have large bowls for them to drop everything into and serve the sauce in a bowl on the side so they can add as much as they want. Have fresh cut limes and extra fish sauce available so they can adjust to taste. Frank's favorite way to eat Khao Pun is to take the letuuce leaves and make wraps out of the various fillings. There is really no wrong way to eat it. Enjoy!

Lemongrass Marinated Flank Steak

This is actually one of the dishes from the Thai themed birthday party in April. It’s a very easy recipe, which is a nice feature if you are making a few things at once. I made it a few hours before the party and served it slightly chilled.

1-1 1/2 lbs flank steak
2-3 stalks lemongrass, minced
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp minced ginger
3 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp canola oil
1/2 tsp sesame oil
Juice from one lime

1. Combine all the ingredients in a non-reactive container. I like to use a large Ziploc bag.
2. Marinate for a minimum of 4 hours or overnight
3. Grill or broil to desired doneness and slice thinly to serve.

Thai Party Time!

Last weekend we celebrated the birthday of a good friend. The idea was to have a Thai inspired meal and the obligatory bucket of KFC! As you can see his daughter was quite pleased with the spread. Frank and I made the majority of the dishes, as that was our gift to the birthday boy. A quick note on the "bucket". We seem to always have one now at our parties. I am not sure how this tradition began, but in fact it isn't a party without it. The secret to this Thai party is that most of the dishes I learned from my Lao mother in-law. In particular the Laap. It's so easy to prepare. The downside is that it is a lot of prep work, but I have never had a bad batch so it's definitely a keeper in my book! The rest of the dishes are as follows; Lemongrass Marinated Flank Steak, Thai Crab Salad, Chicken Lumpia (Store bought. I need to try and make these, but the ones we bought were really good!), Coconut Shrimp from Trader Joe's (also tasty), fresh mango with mint and pineapple. One thing that is also a "must" have at any event is the crudities platter, which at this one also served as a vehicle for the Laap. Oh, and of course Jasmine rice.
A word of note on the Laap. You can use any meat you like as long as it's in small ground pieces. Last night I made a "vegetarian" version with ground "Quorn" which is a fungus based protein. It ends up tasting like a version of Laap made with pork! It's not a true veggie version as I still used fish sauce, but if you know of a good alternative then try it out! Chicken Laap recipe follows:

Chicken Laap



1 lb ground chicken
2 tbsp canola oil
3-4 garlic cloves minced
2-3 stalks lemongrass minced
2 tbsp ginger minced
3-4 scallions chopped
3-4 kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded
1 cup each fresh basil, mint and Thai or Vietnamese basil coarsely chopped
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup fish sauce (this is really based on personal taste so add a little and then see if you think it needs more)
chili paste or fresh Thai chilies to taste
1/4 cup ground toasted glutinous rice

1. Stir fry the chicken in oil until cooked through then set aside to drain off any excess fat and liquid.
2. Briefly stir fry the garlic, ginger, lemongrass and kaffir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Combine with chicken in a large mixing bowl.
3. Add fish sauce, lime juice, chili paste and toasted rice to taste. Don't add all the liquid at once. Try it with about half of the amounts first as the quantities I have given are based on my taste preferences. You may like yours saltier or more sour.
4. Set the mixture sit for a minimum of 1 hour.
5. Just before serving, taste to adjust the seasoning and add the fresh herbs and scallions.
6. Serve with sticky rice or plain rice and cucumber slices and lettuce.