Algae Mixed with other Ingredients from Traditional Recipes of Laos by Phia Sing

Ingredients

• chopped spring onion leaves
• 1 bowl of meat broth
• salt and fish sauce
• minced pork, a quantity the size of a duck’s egg, parched in a hot pan without fat and then pounded finely
• 1 fistfulthao (a dark green kind of algae)—wash, pick out any foreign matter and squeeze out the water
• chopped coriander leaves
• 1 handful of small shrimps (koung foi, a very small freshwater species)—pick off heads and tails, and wash
• 1 fresh red chilli pepper, seeded, finely chopped
• 1 (small) head of garlic, placed in the embers of a charcoal fire until almost cooked (and then peeled), finely chopped
• 3 spring onion bulbs
• 1 round eggplant
• 3 soupspoonfuls of sesame seeds, parched in a hot pan without fat and then pounded finely