Lao Recipes


Ingredients 10 dried red chilli peppers, to be grilled slowly until brittle (but do not let them burn and turn black) and then pounded finely 5 (small) shallots 5 (small) heads of garlic fire, then washed and pounded finely These above two ingredients are to be seared in a charcoal 2 slices of galingale, finely pounded salt and fish sauce chopped coriander leaves 1/2 a strip of dried water-buffalo skin, grilled until done, then scraped smooth, cut into thin small slices and soaked in salt water Method Pound together, until they are thoroughly mixed, all the previously pounded ingredients. Sprinkle salt on them and add a little water. Mix, and add the pieces of water-buffalo skin. Taste and check the saltiness. If the mixture is too thick, add some boiled water, still warm. Put the mixture on a platter and garnish it with chopped coriander leaves. Serve it with Jee Sin Lod (grilled dried beef-take a long, thin piece of dried beef, say, a foot long and as thick as a finger; cook it by putting it directly into a charcoal fire; then remove it, rub off the blackened parts, beat it to make it tender and cut it up as you wish). * Editors' Note. Bong means pickled. This sauce is not, literally, a pickle; but it keeps for a very long time, as pickles do, and that seems to be why it has this name