Tibetan Street Food — Laping Recipe

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1. 1Step 1: Before heating, stir the starch and water together until you get an even texture.
2. 2Step 2: Heat the mixture on stove top to medium, stirring frequently, for 8-9 minutes, or until the mixture is so thick you can barely stir it. If the mixture is boiling before it thickens, turn down the heat until it stops boiling. When done the texture will be very thick, almost like jello, but it still needs to set.
3. 3Step 3: Transfer the cooked mixture into a clean bowl and let it sit overnight at room temperature. In order to shorten the time for cooling, it can also be placed in the refrigerator for 4-5 hours.
4. 4Step 4: After the laping has set, remove it from the bowl. It should stand up by itself, like a very firm jello.
5. 5Step 5: In Tibet, people grate the laping with a very large grater, but our grater was too small and didn’t really work, so we did what many Tibetans do, and just cut the laping with a large knife into long strips.
6. 6Step 6: Mince 7 cloves of garlic.
7. 7Step 7: Chop 1 stalk green onion.
8. 8Step 8: Chop ¼ cup cilantro.
9. 9Step 9: Combine garlic, onion and cilantro with 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon rice vinegar, ¼ cup sesame oil, ¼ cup soy sauce, and ¼ cup crushed dried red pepper in a small bowl and stir well. This amount of pepper makes it VERY spicy. If you’re not accustomed to spicy food, just add the pepper in very small increments until you hit the right amount for you.
10. 10Step 10: Drizzle the sauce over the laping, then mix gently with a spatula or other flat utensil until the laping is well-coated with the sauce.
11. 11Step 11: Serve as a side dish with any meat or veggie entree, or as a tasty snack on its own.