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Karyn Lindberg believes good recipes are meant to be shared. You can reach her at cookingkaryn@comcast.net.

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Layer Asian flavors for lively dinner

Try it: A nest of noodles, pork and cabbage

THE OLYMPIAN | • Published September 30, 2009

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Hidden in an e-mail sent many weeks ago, I recently unearthed a recipe from my dear friend Rebecca Cody. She called it Kapoon, a meat dish with a flavorful sauce made with ginger and chili powder served over a nest of spaghetti and cabbage.

The recipe came from a Laotian woman back in the days when Rebecca lived in Arkansas. “We were 50 miles from an Asian grocery store back then,” she explained. “We had to make do with substitutes.”

A Web search produced the correct spelling for a Laotian dish called Kao Poon Nam Prik with similar ingredients.

I made my own changes and came up with an Americanized version. For one thing, it called for 10 cloves of garlic pounded into a paste made from fish and pork.

Asian cooks have huge granite mortar and pestle sets. The pestle is heavy and about as big as the top of a baseball bat.

In 2006, I took a cooking class in Bali where we pounded a dozen ingredients into a paste they call sambal. The instructor insisted it tastes different when it is pounded into a paste than when it is whirled in a food processor. She might be right, but our kitchens are more likely to have the latter.

The recipe calls for thinly sliced pork. For a dish that served my husband and me, I used two pork loin chops sliced very thin.

One of the best cooking oils on the market is extra virgin coconut oil which is solid until heated to 76 degrees. It is not made using heat or chemicals but, like olive oil, is cold pressed. Both heat and chemicals can damage oils.

There is a slight coconutty scent when it is melted, but I have not detected a taste once it combines with other food. Best of all, it converts to energy in your body instead of fat.

Put a couple teaspoons of the coconut oil into a large sauté pan, just enough to coat the bottom of the pan over medium high heat.

Add the pork slices to the pan and toss until all pink color is gone. Add a half cup or so of chopped onion and cook until it softens. Let it cool in the pan while you prepare the sauce.

Into the bowl of your food processor, toss about a quarter cup of galangal pieces. Galangal has an unusual and delicate flavor. It’s related to ginger but the taste is different. Scrape away the thin skin. This will reveal tough little brown sprouts. I cut around them and tossed them out.

Pull away the outer leaves from one stalk of lemon grass and then cut away the bottom until you get rid of the fibrous end. You should be able to see little circles after cutting away about an inch from the bottom of the stalk. Keep cutting up the stalk until you see the circle pattern all the way to the center of the stalk. Slice about five inches of the remaining stalk thinly and add to the processor bowl.

Add a quarter cup of soy sauce. Of course, Asian cooks use fish sauce. If you like it, use it instead or use it half and half with the soy sauce.

You can make this dish mild, blazing hot or anywhere in between. Most Asian markets carry Thai chilies or you can use a jalapeno. Remove the seeds and veins from inside the chilies, rough chop and add to the processor bowl along with two or three garlic cloves, cut into pieces. Add the juice of a small lime and whirl until well blended. Another possible addition if you like heat is sweet chili sauce. Add to the meat and stir.

Cut a quarter head of cabbage into very thin slices. Add a few dashes of seasoned rice vinegar, just enough to moisten it. Heat up two quarts of water in a sauce pan and toss in a small handful of thin rice sticks, which can be purchased at any Asian market and will cook into noodles. You just need enough to make two small nests of noodles, so break off a bundle that fills the circle made by your thumb and forefinger. Cook for just a few moments until they soften. Overcooked, they turn to mush. Strain, put back in the pan, add a few dashes of toasted sesame oil and stir.

Warm up the meat mixture a little, taste and add salt and pepper to taste. Put half of the cabbage into two large salad bowls or plates. Make a nest of the rice noodles over the cabbage and top with the meat mixture. Top with any or all of the following: chopped peanuts, chopped cilantro or chopped green onions. You also can slice up shallots and deep fry them to top this dish.

All of the Asian ingredients are available at Hong Phat Market on College Street in Lacey. The helpful staff there will steer you to the fresh ingredients that are seldom labeled.

Rebecca’s recipe turned into a satisfying culinary quest. The result was a dinner salad, each layer yielding fresh flavors that combined into a delicious meal.

Karyn Lindberg has called Olympia home since 1988. She believes good recipes are meant to be shared. You can reach her at cookingkaryn@comcast.net.

Shopping List

Pork loin chops, two

Small onion

Galangal, small piece

Lemon grass, one stalk

Soy sauce/fish sauce

Thai chilies or jalapeno

Lime

Sweet chili sauce (optional)

Cabbage

Seasoned rice vinegar