Lap Ngua / Beef Lap

• 5 cups of beef, thinly sliced and chopped (or use ground beef), cooked
• 2 cup of cow stomach, thoroughly cleaned, cooked by boiling, thinly sliced and chopped
• 2 cup of cow liver, cooked by boiling, thinly sliced and chopped
• 2 cup of cow lung, cooked by boiling, thinly sliced and chopped
• 1/2 cup of mint, chopped
• 1/2 cup of green onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup of Asian bean sprouts (optional)
• 1/2 cup of kha, chopped (galinga)
• 1/2 of a lime (its juice)
• 3 tblspoon kow kua (roasted uncooked rice that has been completed blended/grounded by a blender or pounded in a mortar and pestle.)
• 2 tblspn of nampha (fish sauce)
• 2 tblspn padaek (fermented fish sauce)
• 2-3 fresh chilis (chopped) or 1 tblspn dried chilis (grounded up)

As an alternative to beef you can use just about any meat available including pork, buffalo, chicken, duck, fish, etc. If using a chicken or duck, then you would use the inners of those animals such as gizzard, liver, etc.

Instructions:

The meat should be cooked by pan fry or roasted then chopped up. It would be easier to use ground beef. The animal inners should be boiled in some water that contains a little bit of salt and lemon grass or simply cook over a pan. Begin chopping the meat and inners all up into small bits. Add in the chopped vegetable ingredients. Mix it all up. Now squeeze half of that lime, sprinkle the kow kua, and add the fish sauce and padaek. Mix again. Chop up 2-3 fresh red chilis and sprinkle over. Mix everything now. Taste it and add more chilis or fish sauce to taste.

FYI: Some people will call this dish chopped steak tartar or a meat salad.

Tum Mak Houng / Papaya Salad

• 6 cups of thinly, finely shredded unripened papaya, mak houng
• 1 tomato (sm/med sized), chopped
• 3 tbspn of padaek (fermented fish sauce)
• 1 teaspoon kapee (shrimp paste)
• 2 chilis (most Lao put an average of 6 red chilis)
• 1 tbspn of nampha (fish sauce)
• 1 tbspn of lime juice
• 1 tbspn of sugar
• 1 garlic head, small

You can also add any cooked noodle as an addition or filler such as rice vermicelli noodles, in fact you can use just about any Asian noodles. As an alternative to the papaya itself you can also use cucumber, noodles entirely, or carrots.

Instructions:

Using a koke (mortar and pestle) throw in your chilis, sugar, kapee, one little garlic head. Thoroughly pound that up. Now add everything else and keep pounding it until all the ingredients have almagamated together, for about a minute or so. Taste it and add more salt, sugar, lime, fish sauce or padaek to taste.

This is by far one of the most popular dishes in Laos as it can be quickly prepared and the ingredients are often readily available in most Lao homes. Not to mention it is also a healthy salad that puts a different twist on salads.