Thai Princess

What's the girl who eats out every night of the week to do on the hottest night this year so far? What lovely retreat does she seek? Why, the steamy confines of her Hell Kitchen of course!! Yes, this week I decided that I have got to warm up the knife skills and remember that I, too can prepare an inspiring meal once in a while. Also, we'd planted this adorable little herb garden in the backyard and the cilantro was threatening to take over the neighborhood like a roving B movie tarantula.

After consulting a couple of online recipes I decided to try to make Larb or Laab, a Thai salad. I had pretty much everything I needed on hand and the only cooking that needed to be done was to brown off the ground turkey. I set to chopping. In a large non-reactive bowl I diced half a Vidalia onion, a jalapeno and grated off a teaspoon of fresh ginger. I browned the turkey in a medium hot pan on the Oven of Death. Okay, that was really hot. But it was only a couple of minutes. I dumped the turkey in the bowl and added the juice of one small lime and a few dashes of fish sauce. Then I neatly chopped up a handful of cilantro and about a tablespoon of the gorgeous Thai and some lemon basil and mixed the whole shebang together.

Feeling like a regular Ms. Green Jeans, I went out into the back yard and harvested a small head of lettuce that I'd managed not to kill (not all were so lucky) lopped it off, cleaned it and voila!! The best Larb I've ever had. (Isn't that fun to say? Try it! LAAARRRBuh.)

And now... for your moment of Zen.