While living Yellowstone, and surviving off of cafeteria steam table food and way too many bagels, I dreamt daily of eating just one good Thai meal. My favorite day was when the cafeteria served “curry” and I would take over the kitchen to hobble together the closest thing I could get to a true Thai curry with the ingredients we had on hand.
About half of the people in my small village on the Lake were visiting on international work visas. We had large populations from Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Taiwan, and Mongolia. One of my closest friends was a lanky Taiwanese kid who worked in the Employee Dining Room. His real name is Fang Yoh Hong, but in Yellowstone all the Asian employees came with an ‘American’ name, assigned to them by their English instructors. Fang Yoh Hong went by Daniel. He had a hell of a pool game, having skipped school weekly to go hang out in Taiwanese pool halls smoking cigarettes and playing against old men. I took him on his very first hike the day before he left the park. On the days when I would make Thai curry or some other kind of Asian food, he would taste it, and then let everyone know if it was safe to eat. Before he left he gifted me a pack of instant ramen that he’d brought from home. Having spent a year making ramen from scratch, it causes me great pain to say this: I swear to god, it was one of the best ramens I’ve ever had.
Anyways, when I got to Nevada and had the chance to start cooking again, one of the first orders of business was to make Thai food. I decided on Chicken Laap Wraps. Laap wraps were one of my absolute favorite things that we sold as a special at Gan Shan Station, and if there was any left by the time my day off came, I would make sure to stop by and buy one. Laap, also called Larb, is a meat salad originating in Laos. A Laotian population in Thailand made it a very popular Thai dish as well. I called it Thai Laap Wraps, because the recipe I used while at Gan Shan Station came out of a very extensive Thai cookbook.
These are not that recipe. In Nevada, there is nowhere to get galangal, lemongrass, thai chilis, and many other things. This is my best attempt at creating a dish similar to Laap. I made a paste involving lots of roasted jalapeno and anaheim peppers. Laap is, traditionally, very spicy. I served it alongside fresh tomatoes, radishes, grilled broccoli, and green banana. Honestly, when I tasted this I thought, I’ve out done myself. Being the person that I am, desperate for attention and constantly craving approval from everyone around me, I asked my brother-in-law what he thought. “It tastes like heartburn.”
Thai Laap Wraps That Taste Like Heartburn
Ingredients
- 2 anaheim peppers
- 2 jalapenos
- 4 green bell peppers
- 2 shallots
- 3 garlic bulbs
- 1 small finger of ginger about the size of a pinky, peeled and chopped
- ½ bunch of cilantro
- ¼ cup lime juice
- ⅛ cup fish sauce
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds
- 2 tsp black peppercorn
- 2 tsp cardamom seeds
- 1 tsp fennel seed
- 4 whole cloves
- 2 tsp szechuan peppercorn
- 1 lb. ground chicken
- 1 cup jasmine rice
Instructions
- Begin by starting the rice in a rice cooker.
- Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Oil/salt the peppers, line them on a baking tray, and then roast until they are very blistered and beginning to blacken.
- Meanwhile, in a dry wok, begin toasting all the whole spices, moving constantly. Once they are very fragrant and slightly golden, set aside to cool. Once cooled, grind them in a coffee or spice grinder. I didn’t have one of those on hand so I just put them in the KitchenAid mixer and it worked pretty well.
- Add the garlic, shallot, and ginger to the dry wok. Toast, while moving constantly, until very fragrant and beginning to turn golden. Some charred spots are alright.
- Once the peppers are done roasting, take the stems out and add them into the KitchenAid mixer. I prefer to do this while they are still hot, as it helps everything puree a bit easier. Leave the skins on the peppers. The black spots are okay.
- Add the garlic, ginger, shallot, and all the spices to the mixer. Add the cilantro, fish sauce, and lime juice. Puree until very smooth.
- Cook the ground chicken in a saute pan with canola oil and salt. For 1 lb. of chicken, use about ¼ cup of the paste and then taste. Adjust with lime juice and fish sauce, and possibly more paste.
- I served the Laap alongside more paste so that people could add more spice to their wraps if desired. I certainly did.
- Serve with whole leaf lettuce or Nappa cabbage, fresh vegetables, and rice. Sticky rice is definitely preferred, but I used jasmine rice because that is all that was available.
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