Steemit Sandwich Contest Week #40- Laab Cumberwich

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One of my favorite Thai dish was the inspiration for @jaybird's week #40 sandwich contest. Laab is a dish from northeastern Thailand which consists of minced meat that is heavily seasoned with fish sauce, toasted rice powder, dry chili powder, lots of lime juice and fresh mint. Steamed sticky rice or plain steamed rice and some raw vegetables complete the meal. I decided to recreate a sandwich using all the ingredients from this classic dish.

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Ingredients:

  • ground pork
  • glutinous rice
  • lemongrass
  • shallots
  • ground chilis
  • mint
  • cilantro
  • kaffir lime leave
  • fish sauce
  • lime juice
  • cucumber
  • steamed red rice
  • radish (vinegar, water, sugar, salt)
  • tamarind paste
  • hot pepper jelly

Instead of using bread for this sandwich, I decided to use cucumber as the vessel to hold fillings. Using a melon baller, I hollowed out the center of the cucumber so there would be space to build my cumberwich.

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What makes laab so unique is the use of toasted glutinous rice powder. It adds a nutty flavor to this dish. To make your rice powder you just toast the rice over low heat in a pan until the rice is golden brown.

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Once the rice is cool, place the toasted rice into a spice grinder and blend until a powder.

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I placed the shallots, cilantro, mint, inner stalks of lemongrass (because the outer ones are too tough), and kaffir lime leaves into a food processor and pulsed until the aromatics are minced. The rice powder and shallot mix are added to the ground pork. I seasoned it with fish sauce, ground chilis and lime juice to taste. There should be a good amount of lime juice. Using a small ice cream scooper, I formed 1 inch meatballs and deep fried them.

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To accompany my cumberwich I made some taro root chips. I thinly sliced some taro root on a mandolin and deep fried them until they were crispy and seasoned them with some salt.

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Now the sandwich is ready to be built. I filled one half of the cumberwich with some steamed red rice. I like to use red rice because it is a little chewy which adds a different texture to this dish. On top of the rice I placed the meatballs. Then the pickled radishes, fresh mint and cilantro finish off this sandwich.

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This sandwich is so flavorful. The juicy meatballs are super aromatic from the lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and shallots. The fish sauce adds a salty note and the lime juice adds and tanginess to this dish. The pickled radish add some sweetness and the cucumbers are perfect for holding all the ingredients and giving a crunchy element.

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I made a quick sauce with tamarind paste and hot pepper jelly. The extra tartness and sweetness from this sauce compliments this cumberwich.

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i like your food, it is delicious. you have good ideas

Thank you @jaklassen. Your strawberries with chocolate sauce looked really good. Did you make the chocolate sauce? What type of chocolate do you like to use?

Thank you my dear @loveself yes I did homemade chocolate. I have taken raw sugar and milk and cocoa.
You can see in my previous post.

https://steemit.com/food/@jaklassen/cake-torte-fruehlings-rezept-ba7d470cfe375

That cake looks out of this world!

You are beautiful, thank you

This is super creative! Really diggin your cucumber vessel choice :)

Great selection of ingredients including all the citrus-stuff in tandem with more watery-stuff like the radish.

Very interesting with the meat/fish sauce combo and of course the rice addition with everything else that's going on... hahaha pretty crazy ~

Nice job overall ~

Thank you @jaybird for creating the competition and challenging me to think each week what type of sandwich would I like to eat this week.

Nooooo problemo ~

This looks sooo good! That sauce glistening on top of the laab belongs in a cook book spread. Also love the look of those taro chips!

You are too kind @whattheduck. I love taro anything and I could probably eat those chips all day dipped in the tamarind sauce.

I've never eaten taro, will have to go on a hunt this weekend and see if I can find them somewhere!

so many asian flavoursss!!! love it!! i know i said this before, but you really do know how to pair flavors. love how the taco chips' crispiness which in my opinion makes the dish interesting along with the crunchy juicy cucumber!! nice texture combo!

Thanks so much for your compliment @alansthoughs. Great minds think alike, haha. I saw you also made a cucumber wrap! You are incredibly creative. Can't wait to see more from you.

Hahaha thanks , I too can’t wait to see more from

Girl! This is amazing! You are so creative and fun to read:) I will make the meatballs!
I have not purchased the fish sauce yet. I rarely have a recipe that calls for it. I feel as it will sit on a fridge shelf for a long time... Do you know more recipes that would require that condiment?
Also kaffir lime leaves - I have not seen those in any grocery store. What can I substitute them with?

I love fish sauce and it lasts for a long time. You can make a really good dipping sauce for roast chicken using fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, cilantro and fresh chilis. You can also make marinates using fish sauce, coconut milk, turmeric, garlic, and cilantro. If you don't have kaffir lime leaves, you can use lime zest or leave it out. You'll find lots of new uses for the fish sauce. Thank you @sweetsandbeyond.

Amazing sandwich. The fried laab meatball with the tamarind sauce must be incredible!

The flavors really worked well. Thank you @chefsteve. When are you going to enter the contest?

Oh my word @loveself, all those flavours sound delicious! Well done with the contest :)

Thank you @lizelle. Always so nice to hear from you!

Wow!!!!!! It looks super yummy! I feel as if I just bit it, haha. ;)

Thank you @mayasiam. I just read your huang lay curry post, now I want some!

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