HOUSTON – Quarantine is making us cook more and get more creative in the kitchen.
But if you are struggling to find new ideas to stretch the food in your fridge and pantry, celebrity chef Rick Moonen, shared an easy recipe that uses leftovers from Perry’s Steakhouse famous pork chop and turns it into spicy pork larb cabbage wraps.
“What is a labr? Larb is a meat salad from Northern Thailand. This is basically a salad,” said Moonen, a James Beard recognized chef and member of the American Culinary Hall of Fame, considered to be the godfather of sustainability.
But in spite of his accolades, he’s just like us, practicing social distancing, and cooking at home.
“This leftover pork chop was in the refrigerator and I ground it up. But you can chop it up, you can dice it up if you want more texture as well, said Moonen about the recipe he shared who is Perry’s Master Development Chef.
If you don’t have pork chops at home, Perry’s now features Pork Chop Friday and Wednesday Lunch to-go for $16.
For more information, click here.
To see Moonen’s complete interview, watch the video above.
And for the recipe, see below.
SPICY PORK LARB CABBAGE WRAPS
(Yield: 12)
Base Sauce:
• 1 head garlic, peeled and chopped
• 8-10 large Thai chiles, finely sliced
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 ½ cups lime juice
• 1 cup Red Boat fish sauce
• 1 cup blended oil
Directions:
Add all the above ingredients into a mason jar. Shake well and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours. Move to the refrigerator after 24 hours.
Wraps:
• 1-pound ground (or finely diced) Pork Chop leftovers
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 ounces garlic cloves, sliced
• 6 large limes
• 1 head green cabbage
• ½ large red onion, finely sliced
• ½ cup Thai basil leaves, roughly chopped
• ½ cup cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
• ½ cup mint leaves, roughly chopped
Directions:
1. In a large sauté pan over high heat, heat the olive oil and the sliced garlic. Cook the garlic, stirring frequently, until golden brown.
2. Add the ground pork and cook for 2 minutes. Deglaze the pan with 4 ounces of the reserved base sauce. Cook for one additional minute and remove from heat to cool.
3. Make lettuce cups out of the tender center leaves of the cabbage.
4. In a wok or large sauté pan, reheat the larb meat with olive oil until it begins to brown.
5. Fold in the onions and 2/3 of the herbs. Transfer to a bowl and place on the platter next to the cabbage leaves. Pour reserved base sauce into a bowl to serve with finished cabbage wraps. Garnish with the remaining herbs and lime wedges.
6. To assemble, spoon in the meat mixture to a cabbage leaf, add extra herbs of your choice and drizzle more base sauce over to taste.
Recipe provided by: Rick Moonen.