Thai Laap Plaa

After a longer break from chopping, last weekend was all about Laap Plaa for us, a Thai salad made from minced fish. Normally, Laap Plaa is made from a whole grilled fish, but since we had no grill, fillets had to do. The salad impressed us so much with its sour and spicy taste on Friday evening that we made it again right away on Saturday evening.

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Preparation

Fry all fish fillets one after another in a shallow pan with a little oil, so they are lightly browned but not dry yet. Then set them aside and let them cool slightly.

In the meantime, the roasted rice powder can be prepared.

Then squeeze the limes and mix the juice with fish sauce and palm sugar or brown sugar. Set this mixture aside.

Now cut the Thai chives into rings, pluck mint and coriander leaves from the stems, and chop them roughly. Cut the lemongrass into rings and chop those very finely; frozen lemongrass is easiest to chop. Place each ingredient separately in a bowl or on a plate.

Peel the onions and cut them into thin rings, halve them if needed, and place them in a small bowl as well.

Now comes chopping the fillets. For this, you need a cleaver, a sturdy chopping board, and ideally a splash guard, because bits can fly around while chopping. Our friend Fischi built the Laap chopping station for this. Place two or three fillets on the board, spread them with the pickled galangal, and chop carefully until the fish has roughly the consistency of minced meat. Put the chopped fish in a bowl and continue until all fish is chopped.

Then put the chopped fish into a heated pan, stir in the lemongrass and Thai chives, and fry everything together for two to three minutes. Deglaze with the lime-juice-fish-sauce-sugar mixture and let it simmer until almost all liquid has disappeared.

Transfer the fish mixture to a large, shallow bowl, for example a casserole dish, and let it cool slightly.

In the meantime, remove the stems from the Thai chilis and deep-fry them together with the lime leaves in the remaining vegetable oil. Be careful not to burn anything.

Now add the chopped mint and coriander to the fish and mix everything well. Sprinkle the salad with rice powder and chili powder, garnish with onion rings, and mix again. If you like it hotter, increase the chili powder. Finally, scatter the fried chilis and lime leaves over the salad and serve immediately with jasmine rice or, even better, sticky rice.