Laap, Larp, Lap...whatever. It's a Laotian dish and the name is difficult to transliterate in English. Most times I've seen it written as 'laap', so let's go with that. Usually a fairly meaty salad, laap is traditionally most commonly made with ground pork, but in some parts of Laos which are popular with tourists, you will find veggie versions (the Laos probably think that's really weird). I found this recipe in a cafe in the village of Vang Vieng, one of the most touristy places in the country. I spent a couple of weeks there on a journey through Laos from Thailand. My original plan was to head north to the Chinese border then cross into Yunnan province. It was getting cold though and from the weather reports for Yunnan, it seemed to be even colder there. I was travelling with a tiny rucksack containing only my most necessary possessions, which on this occasion included my Advent netbook, as I had to work on the road. The computer, along with a bag of cables and connectors meant I didn't have room for much more than a couple of T-shirts, a light jumper and a pair of shorts, so I was shivering in the mornings and evenings and wasn't relishing the gradual drop in temperature as I traveled further north. In the end I decided to turn round in Luang Prabang and head back to the warmth. It was in retrospect, a very wise decision, as I enjoyed being on the beach even more the second time. But that came later - I've still to tell you about Vang Vieng and the laap....
Laos is a mostly Buddhist country. There are monasteries and monks everywhere and they are the primary attraction for many of the visitors - in fact it all gets a bit too cheesy in Luang Prabang which is on the 'South east Asia in three weeks' air route and most of the visitors are walking about with mega-cameras snapping everything and the monks are turned out in their best kit. It's a major income generator, so if that's what it takes...
But, the thing is, in a country with so many Buddhist's, you might expect to find a lot of vegetarian eating options, but you don't. In Laos, 'if it moves, catch it and eat it' seems to be the main culinary rule. The markets are full of wild birds, rodents, insects and a whole bunch of other wildlife. And there's not much left running about. I didn't see any animals in the forests and very few birds.
So, there's not much of a vegetarian tradition and the best places to find veg food are in tourist places. Back to Vang Vieng... I spent a while there because I had to complete a job and I had found a nice room with a desk to work at and round-the-clock electricity. I identified three or four restaurants with good veg menus and spent the evenings working through them. There were a lot of Thai-style dishes - green and red curries, tom yam. The tom yam usually had tamarind added to the sauce which is a very Lao thing to do. It was all very tasty, but the most Lao type dish I found was the laap. Not quite the traditional version, but nonetheless a delicious and quite distinctive dish. What makes it distinctive is the addition of crushed roasted rice grains, which give a wonderful nutty flavour and texture, but can be hard on the teeth for some. Leave the rice out and the dish will still be good, but I'm going to include it here. It's not difficult to do; just swirl the rice around in a dry hot frying pan until it turns an even golden colour, then crush the grains with a pestle and mortar.
The quantities of ingredients are not too important here, so I'll reflect that fact in the list. Starting with about 500g of tofu will make enough laap for about four people.
A lump of tofu
About the same weight of fresh mushrooms
A handful of crushed toasted rice
A few sprigs of fresh herbs (coriander, mint and spring onions)
A couple of green chillies
A few crushed white peppercorns
A lime
Salt
A little oil
A load of salad leaves for garnish
Chop the mushrooms very finely and crumble or chop the tofu to give it a fine texture too. Heat a little oil in a pan and add the tofu and mushrooms and stir fry the mixture on a high heat for just a few minutes adding a little salt just at the end of cooking time. Remove from the heat and add the herbs and chillies, finely chopped, plus the crushed rice, pepper and lime juice. Mix well and the laap is ready. It can be served hot or cold.
Serve as individual portions on a bed of salad leaves.