Grilled Thai Beef Salad
I learned this dish from a Thai cook named “Mr. Mike”, many years ago. We often ate it as family meal before a long night on the cooking line. Thai beef salad is served family style on a platter and is a hands-on dish to eat. The correct way to eat this salad is for everyone to take a bibb lettuce leaf and fill it with some of the beef mixture. Add a tomato wedge, a slice of cucumber, more mint or another squeeze of lime if you prefer, roll it up and eat it like you would a taco.
There are a few key steps in this recipe that make or break this recipe. It is imperative that the shallots, lime and jalapeño pepper are all sliced very thinly, especially the lime. The skin and pith of the lime can be very bitter, but it is vital to the final dish. When it is very thinly sliced, it is much more palatable and adds another layer of interest to the dish.
The other key step is to toast the raw grains of rice just enough to lightly brown them and give them a nice toasted flavor and aroma. The rice then needs to be crushed or ground to the right stage. Too fine and the powder will not add any texture to the finished dish. If it is not ground fine enough, the large pieces of toasted rice are unpleasant to eat. I prefer a mortar and pestle for this task, but a small coffee/spice grinder can also be used.
TOOL TIP:
Mortar and Pestles are very useful tools for the kitchen. In this recipe I use them to grind the toasted Jasmine rice to the proper consistency. Too fine and the rice becomes a texture-less powder. Too coarse and you can chip a tooth! Just right, and the light crunch of the rice lends an interesting texture to this dish. I mostly use my M&P to grind spices and make pastes.
To properly execute this dish, it is imperative that the lime, shallots and Jalapeño pepper are sliced very thinly. My knife of choice for this task (any many others in my kitchen) is my 7-inch Global Santoku knife.
Grilled Thai Beef Salad
Course: SaladsCuisine: ThaiDifficulty: Easy4
servings25
minutes5
minutesIngredients
1 pound beef tenderloin (trimmed)
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 Tablespoon canola oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon uncooked jasmine rice
2 limes
1/4 cup fish sauce
2 shallots, finely sliced
1 Tablespoon finely chopped cilantro
2 scallions, green part only, thinly sliced on bias
2 Tablespoons sliced fresh spearmint leaves
1 Jalapeño pepper, stem and seeds removed and thinly sliced
2 heads Bibb (Boston) lettuce
1/4 seedless cucumber, thinly sliced
1 vine ripe tomato, cored and cut into wedges
4 sprigs fresh spearmint
Directions
- Slice the beef into 1-inch thick medallions. Sprinkle with lime juice, fish sauce, oil, salt and pepper. Let stand for 10 minutes to marinate.
- Grill the beef until it is medium rare, and allow it to rest for 10 minutes.
- In a small dry frying pan, toast the rice until the grains turn light brown. When toasted, place the rice in a mortar and pestle or spice grinder and crush. Take one of the limes and cut into 4 wedges and remove the central membranes. Thinly slice one of the wedges widthwise, including the peel and flesh. Reserve the remaining wedges for garnish.
- In a large bowl, combine the sliced lime, the juice of the other lime, fish sauce, shallots, cilantro, scallions, mint and jalapeño. Thinly slice the beef and add to the bowl along with the toasted rice. Mix well.
- When ready to serve, arrange the cleaned Bibb lettuce leaves on a platter and top with salad mixture. Garnish with tomato wedges, sliced cucumber, mint sprigs and lime wedges.
