Name: Grilled Pork with a Sweet-Tart Dressing
Yield: Serves 4 to 6
Cuisine: Thailand
Ingredients: 1 to 6 Thai chiles or serrano or jalapeño peppers, stemmed, seeded, and thinly sliced (for a hotter salad, leave the seeds in); 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded (see box), and thinly sliced; 1 cup mung bean sprouts; 2 shallots, sliced paper-thin; 2 cups thinly sliced napa cabbage or iceberg lettuce; 2 tablespoons firmly packed light brown sugar, or 2 tablespoons honey; ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 3 cloves garlic, minced; 1 pork tenderloin, or 2 pork chops (each about ½-inch thick; about 8 ounces total); 2 scallions, both white and green parts, trimmed and thinly sliced; ¼ cup fresh basil leaves; ¼ cup fresh mint leaves, plus a few whole sprigs for garnish; ¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves (or more mint or basil); 2 tablespoons rice powder, for garnish (optional; see box); ¼ cup Asian fish sauce; ¼ cup fresh lime juice

Preparation info

Serves
4 to 6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Barbecue Bible

By Steven Raichlen

Published 1998

About

Sometimes written larb, laab refers to a family of Thai salads made with grilled meats, crisp vegetables, and explosively flavored seasonings. This one features pork, which is marinated in a pungent mixture of fish sauce and garlic and grilled just prior to serving.

Roasted rice powder gives the salad a nutty flavor and gritty-crunchy consistency much prized by Southeast Asians. If it seems like too much trouble to make, the salad is still amazingly tasty without it. (Or you