🇱🇦 Lao People's Democratic Republic · Luang Prabang
Or lamLuang Prabang herb soup
A peppery soup-stew of Luang Prabang: buffalo (or beef) and grilled buffalo skin simmered with lemongrass, chilies, sakhaan (chilli wood), eggplant, long beans, wood-ear mushrooms and herbs, eaten with sticky rice.
Origin and history
Or lam is a stew-like soup from Luang Prabang in northern Laos, built on buffalo skin and peppery sakhaan wood. Locals are quoted as saying you have not truly visited Luang Prabang without trying it. One Southeast Asia food article says it was once a specialty of the royal family and a ceremonial dish of the court and religious celebrations before reaching the public, but it names no records for the claim, so treat it as unverified.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings
- Total time
- 1 h 45 min
- Hands-on
- 50 min
Ingredients
- 650 g1.4 lb beef chuck or buffalo meat, diced
- 170 g6 oz buffalo skin (or cow skin), singed over a flame, boiled, scraped and cut small; see notes for dried skin
- 15 pieces sakhaan (mai sakhan, Lao chilli wood), 2.5 cm (1 in) lengths; or 1 tsp black peppercorns plus Sichuan peppercorns
- 1 stalk lemongrass, seared, then rinsed
- 1 soft lemongrass heart, for the aromatic paste
- 3 + 4 bird's eye chilies, 3 for the paste, 4 whole
- 5 cm2 in galangal, for the paste
- 3 small shallots, for the paste
- 75 g1/3 cup glutinous (sticky) rice, rinsed, soaked 1 hour, then ground to a paste with 1 tbsp water
- 6 small round (Lao) eggplants
- 150 g2 cups wood ear mushrooms, soaked and torn if dried
- 75 g1 cup oyster mushrooms
- 1 handful each spring onions, pumpkin or yam leaves (or spinach), Lao or sweet basil, dill, chopped; extra basil and dill to finish
- 2 tbsp + 2 tbsp padaek (unfiltered fish sauce) and fish sauce
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1.7 L7 cups water
- salt, a pinch; sticky rice to serve
Method
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1. Rinse the sticky rice and soak it in warm water for 1 hour, then grind it with 1 tbsp water to a paste.
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2. Prepare the skin: dry it, singe off any hair over a flame, boil it in salted water for 15 minutes, soak in cold water, scrape off the charred bits and cut it into small pieces.
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3. Pound the soft lemongrass, 3 chilies, galangal and shallots into a coarse paste.
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4. Heat the oil in a large pot and fry the paste for a few minutes, until fragrant.
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5. Add the diced meat and stir briefly, then pour in the water and bring to a boil.
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6. Add the seared lemongrass and the sakhaan, lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
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7. Add the oyster and wood ear mushrooms, the skin and a pinch of salt. Boil, then cover and cook on low for 15 minutes, until the meat is tender.
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8. Add the eggplants, 4 whole chilies, padaek and fish sauce, and cook until the eggplants are very soft. Mash them against the pot or lift them out, pound them, and stir the pulp back in.
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9. Stir in the sticky rice paste, cover and cook on low for 5 minutes to thicken the broth.
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10. Add the spring onions and leaves, then the dill and basil, turn off the heat, and serve in deep bowls with sticky rice.
Notes
- Sakhaan is a wood, not a vegetable: diners chew a piece briefly to release a peppery, slightly numbing juice and discard the fibre. It is hard to find outside Laos; a mix of black and Sichuan peppercorns is the suggested stand-in, and the peppery character will be milder.
- Dried buffalo skin, the signature ingredient, is boiled 1 to 2 hours until jelly-like before the other ingredients go in (the Boat Landing version). Fresh cow skin, as here, is quicker. Buffalo meat needs longer simmering than beef chuck.
- The Boat Landing cookbook version uses duck pieces and rattan shoots or banana blossom; other cooks add long beans and banana blossom, and the dish is often topped with crispy pork cracklings.
- Serve with sticky rice and cucumber. Because there is no fixed recipe, vegetables and meat vary from cook to cook.
Adapted from Saeng's Kitchen, Or Lam (Spicy Lao Beef Stew) and Food from Northern Laos (The Boat Landing Cookbook), via Pha Khao Lao.
At the festivals
No festival we list has printed it on a menu yet.