Laab Muu (ลาบหมู) is a ground pork dish. True to most Thai dishes, it includes a variety of flavors and is usually eaten with rice. The best way to eat it though is with sticky rice and raw vegetables to help with the bite of the spicy chili flavor. This is one of my favorite Thai dishes and I am so excited to share it with you. I hope you will be able to enjoy this dish and share a little bit of Thailand with your family and friends. So let’s begin!
The important thing to getting the authentic Thai taste is to get as close to the Thai ingredients as possible. This can be achieved at home by finding a local Asian market or Thai restaurant and getting your ingredients there. The next step if using the right tools and preparing the ingredients the right way. One thing I have learned is that the way we chop veggies in the US is different than the way we do it in Thailand. I will share the Thai way to do things but you can do whatever makes you comfortable. I would encourage you to try it out though. Learning is fun!
This is our tiny Kitchen, and the tools I use for this dish 🙂
This recipe is very easy so the tools you’ll need, you probably already have, such as a cutting board, knife, and wok/pan. I suggest using a wok because the heat is dispersed better, but a pan in fine too.
Next thing….ingredients!
The most important part of this dish is the Prik Laab. This is made from an assortment of ingredients and is ground into a powder using a mortar and pestle, but luckily enough you can probably find it already made and neatly packaged. A couple a weeks ago all the ladies in our village got together and for a few days pounded all the ingredients into tubs of the chili pepper powder and packaged them to sell at the market in town. We got to watch and even help. It was a cool experience. They say that if you are noisy while making a prik powder then that means you will make a good wife 😉
The next ingredient you will need is lime juice. The best way to get it is to go outside to your backyard and pick about four limes off of your lime tree. Or you can get them from the store/market.
Cut them not into wedges but around the core, and squeeze the juice into a small bowl, removing the seeds. Here’s the Thai way:
Next, you will need about two or three heads of pickled garlic. You can reserve the water from the garlic in another bowl to add to the laab while you are cooking it.
You will need shallots, the small red onion like thing. These have a stronger flavor than their onion counterpart. A small handful of five or six should be enough. 
Ground pork is the main ingredient. You can use virtually any meat you want. Even Red Ant Eggs. It’s up to you, but the most commonly used meat is pork. Also, Muu(หมู) means pork in Thai. You can buy it already ground up. But here we just buy a slab of pork, usually with a layer of fat and skin attached and put on the cutting board and start beating it until it becomes ground pork. It’s tastier if it has some fat in it, I promise.
There are three leafy things to add to the dish to make it delish. Cilantro (also known as coriander), Mint leaves, and green onions. You can add as much or as little of these as you want.
The last two ingredients needed are sugar and fish sauce. Most Thai dishes will always use something salty life fish sauce, something sweet like sugar, something spicy like chilis, and something sour like limes. Also, they will add Chua Roht known as MSG. It’s not necessary but Thais will say it’s not right unless you add it. 😀
The first step is to heat up some oil in your wok. Then add the Prik Laab, some of the lime juice, the pickled garlic sliced up, and the shallots sliced up. When the shallots yellow, you can add the pork. Once the pork is browned add the garlic water, lime juice, fish sauce, and sugar to taste. Then after everything is good and cooked add the leafy greens, remove from heat and put it in a beautiful dish to serve.
I hope you all enjoy this great taste of Thailand. Stay tuned or follow my blog to receive more recipes and experiences of Thailand directly in your inbox.