A ‘Grand’ Yam (mixed dish)

Name: A ‘Grand’ Yam (mixed dish) (Yam Yai)
Cuisine: Luang prabang
Ingredients: 1 yo (a piece of pork meat, minced, mixed with flour, salt and ground black pepper, all pounded finely together, flattened into a layer about 0.5 cm thick and steamed), cut into small squares measuring about 2 sections of a finger (say, 5 cm); 5 shoots of mint, finely chopped; 2 spring onions, the leaves only, finely chopped; 1 tablespoon of roasted sesame seed or peanut, finely pounded; 1 head of garlic, to be placed in a charcoal fire until cooked, then peeled and finely pounded; 3 shallots, to be placed in a charcoal fire until cooked, then peeled and finely pounded; pork broth; 5 potatoes, peeled and diced, then fried in pork fat until light golden in colour; salt and fish sauce (or padek liquid); 2 duck’s eggs (beaten and) fried, then cut into strips about 2 sections of a finger (say, 5 cm) long and sliced across into square pieces; 3 boiled (i.e. hard-boiled) duck’s eggs, shelled and sliced lengthways; 1 medium-sized bowl of bean sprouts—blanch them in hot water, then cut off their roots; 2 young cucumbers—take the flesh only (i.e. peel them and discard the centre part with its seeds), cut this into sections and slice the sections very thinly; 3 yard-long beans, blanched and cut into pieces; 5 tender young shoots of water spinach (phak bong), blanched and cut into pieces; 3 round eggplants—take the flesh only and chop it finely; 1 tomato, thinly sliced; 1 coriander plant, stems and leaves only finely chopped; 1 lime, the juice only; a piece of boiled pork, including some fat, about the size of 4 fingers, shredded half a boiled pigs heart, cut into cubes; 1 fried chicken breast, finely shredded; 1 dried squid, soaked in water until tender and then finely shredded; half a can of crabmeat—discard all fragments of shell and shred the meat finely

Yam Yai

Preparation info

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Traditional Recipes of Laos

By Phia Sing

Published 1981

About

Ingredients

1 fried chicken breast, finely shredded
a piece of boiled pork, including some fat, about the size of 4

Asia
Laos
Main course
Side dish
Starter
Southeast Asia
Soup

Method

Put all the vegetables (potatoes, cucumber, bean sprouts, yard-long beans, water spinach, eggplants and tomato) in a large serving-bowl. Sprinkle them with salt and mix them thoroughly. Add the flesh ingredients (from chicken breast down to crabmeat inclusive). Sprinkle with fish sauce (or padek liquid), the lime juice, the pounded ingredients and the pork broth, and mix