Lamb Laab

LAMB FEST 2021 was a delicious day for lamb lovers and connoisseurs of good flavor. Seven of our nine teams shared their recipes for TABLE readers to try at home.

The chef teams who competed for the top prize at TABLE Magazine’s Lamb Fest 2021 brought their experience, their imagination, and their talents to SouthSide Works last October. The results…nine fantastic variations on deliciousness. Each entry was unique in its flavor profile, in its textures, and in its presentation. It was a tough choice, but the many hundreds of attendees voted their taste buds. Guest Judge Hal B. Klein supervised the count and announced the verdict. And the rest is lamb history.

TEAM F-F-F and a Nice Chianti

Isaac William DeBoer and the team at Deadfish joined Don Mahaney of Scratch Food & Beverage in a nose-to-tail Thai laab dish elegantly served in spears of Belgian endive. The flavor profile here traced a path to northern Thailand, with an earthier, drier, and spicier version of laab than most of us are familiar with. It was memorable, unique and 100% delicious.

This dish was chosen for Lamb Fest 2021 because it shows the attention to detail that Deadfish and Scratch & Co. put into their food, as well as the love of the food of Thailand that Deadfish has always had at its core.

This dish allowed the chefs to use every part of the lamb. The lean meat was ground, the offal was poached and sliced, fatty cuts like the belly were prepared confit and fried, the fat was rendered for oil to stir-fry the laab, and the bones were grilled for stock to make the dressing. In short, nothing was wasted for this dish.

Lamb Laab or Laab Nuea Gae

4 oz ground lamb meat
1 oz laab paste
1 tbsp sliced Thai chili (adjustable according to your heat preference)
¼ cup chopped herbs (we prefer green onion, cilantro, and mint)
3 oz pork or lamb stock
1 oz neutral oil or rendered pork or lamb fat
Thai fish sauce or kosher salt, to taste
Fried shallot (usually available at your local Asian grocer)

1. In a small bowl, mix together ground lamb, laab paste, Thai chili, half of the chopped herbs, and 1 ounce of the stock until a fairly homogenous mass is concocted.

2. In a wok or large skillet, heat oil or fat until smoking. Add your meat mixture and begin breaking apart the meat, avoiding any and all lumps of ground lamb sticking together. Once the mixture has become mostly cooked through, add the remaining stock and allow it to cook down, becoming a dressing to the finished salad. Taste for seasoning. Either fish sauce or salt is appropriate. It is important to note that a bit of liquid should pool at the bottom of the plate, making perfect fodder for your sticky rice*.

3. Move laab to plate and finish with remainder of chopped herbs and chopped shallot.

4. Serve with a mixture of fresh herbs such as Thai basil, rau ram, cilantro, garlic chive, shiso, and wedges of green cabbage.

*For sticky rice, which goes here like peanut butter goes with jelly, look for “sweet rice.” This rice is best prepared steamed and needs a bit of a soak to get ready. Some would suggest overnight. Wrap in cheesecloth and set in a steamer, and steam for about 20 minutes, flipping halfway through. The sticky rice should be a bit dense and toothy and will hold together when picked up by hand.

Laab Paste

15 g guajillo chilies, stemmed, deseeded
15 g morita chilies, stemmed, deseeded
8 g makhwaen or szechuan peppercorn in a pinch
6 g coriander seed
3 g fennel seed
4 g black peppercorn
1 g cumin
2 g fresh grated nutmeg
4 cloves
2 pods black cardamom, shelled, pith discarded
1-2 star anise

Toast all ingredients in skillet or wok, grind in spice grinder or mortar and pestle.

1 whole head garlic
2 whole large shallots
1 knob galangal, sliced thin
Fermented fish sauce (nam pla raa), to taste

Grill garlic and shallot over charcoal or open flame until the skin is well-charred and flesh is tender. Grill galangal until charred and fragrant.

Alternatively, peel garlic and shallots and wrap all three ingredients in foil and roast in an aluminum foil envelope at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes until the garlic and shallot are well-roasted and tender and galangal is fragrant.

Run garlic, shallot, and galangal in food processor until a fine paste is achieved. Mix in spice blend and season with nam pla raa until fairly salty.

Story by Keith Recker/ Photography by Laura Petrilla/ Styling by Ana Kelly