Thai Beef Salad

by Jim Price
Falmouth MA, jprice@whoi.edu
Version 1.0, August, 2004.

Thai beef salad is a great summer dish --- light, quick and easy to fix on the grill, and always a crowd-pleaser. The essential idea is to combine a small but very good piece of grilled beef with an interesting green salad. The dressing for the salad can be anything you like, blue cheese, ranch, etc. are all approporiate, but a Thai-style hot and sour dressing is suggested here.

Ingredients

• A top quality beef steak, preferably ribeye; about 3 oz per person is usually sufficient. Marinate and season with black pepper.
• Salad greens, a good mix is half mesculin and half Romain lettuce
• 1/2 cup very thinly sliced sweet onion (assuming four servings here and below),
• 1/2 cup matchstick cut carrots, and any other vegetable that you would like to find in a green salad: mushrooms, tomatoes, sprouts, etc. are all good.

• 2 small red and 2 small green hot peppers, finely diced. The kind of peppers is all-important; I recommend something less than habanero and much more than Italian. Cayenne, jalapeno or Thai peppers are about right.
• 3 Tbl grated fresh ginger
• 4 Tbl Thai fish sauce
• 6 Tbl lime juice, fresh if possible, but bottled whole juice can be good, too (Nellie and Joe's)
• 3 Tbl mild, rice vinegar
• 2 Tbl soy sauce
• 1 Tbl toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp sugar (optional)

Preparation

Grill the steak over a very hot fire. My preference is to scorch the outside while leaving the inside fairly red. This imparts the maximum beef flavor. Let the steak rest for a few minutes, and slice as thinly as possible. Blend the salad greens and vegetables together, and add a modest amount of the dressing. Top with the thinly sliced beef. I suggest that you start slowly with the dressing and not add it directly on to the beef because this dressing does have a rather strong flavor; you can always serve the remainder on the side.

If you'd like a starch, then Basmati rice is appropriate. As a condiment for the rice, try a sauce made along the lines of the Thai salad dressing above, but with the proportion of fish sauce and soy reversed and w/o the fresh ginger or sugar. Very pretty, pungent and spicy! (I am sure this has a Thai name, which I do not know.)  Unfortunately this sauce does not keep well and has to be made fresh.   

Serve with a crisp white wine, e.g., a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, or cold beer. The lime in the dressing also goes very well with margaritas.