In general salads are usually considered healthy and so is red meat when cooked to medium rare or rare. When I’m out eating or wanting to make a salad at home I often like to make a chicken salad, it’s very simple and made with ready to serve roasted chicken. However when it comes to asian salads my most favourite is beef salad with bbq or grilled beef. The reason I like this salad more than other asian salads is because I find the flavour of the dressing goes very well with the grilled beef and a few of other asian herbs and vegetables. Another reason is because it’s all about the spice, I love spicy food and when I first had Thai grilled beef salad they made it very spicy to my liking and it was beautiful. I’m not saying that other asian salads that use different meat don’t taste good, it’s just that I like beef more in asian salads than other meats.
Beef salad, why do they call it beef salad instead of an asian salad? That’s because the quantity of beef used in this salad is more than the amount of vegetables used. To make beef salad or any other meat salad the most common herbs and vegetables used are cucumber, mint, coriander, tomato and some greens of your choice. So the base vegetables are those and all you need is a good amount of juicy marinated grilled beef. The salad dressing used in Thai’s salad is pretty much the same for different meats. The basic ingredients are chili, sugar, fish sauce and lime juice. The spiciness can be adjusted according to your liking and this goes for the sweetness and the saltiness of the dressing as well, however the original flavour should have the balance of sweetness, saltiness and sourness all in one taste.
Note: barbecuing the meat is the original way of cooking the beef in Thailand and in Thai restaurants around the world, but if you don’t have a bbq at home not to worry. The way I cook my meat is by grilling it in a pan instead of bbq. I don’t like getting my meat burnt like the burn stripes you get from the barbie and besides grilling them is best for health. I still get to cook the meat to my liking without burn stripes.
THAI BEEF SALAD
Prep-Time: 30 mins Serve: 4
Cooking Time: 4 mins
Ingredients
4 steak fillets
Salt
Pepper
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 large carrot, thinly sliced
1 Lebanese cucumber, chopped
1 red onion, sliced
6 stalk mint, leaves
3 stalk coriander, chopped
1/2 cup mini Roma tomato
2 stalk celery, sliced
4 Romaine lettuce leaves, chopped
dressing
7 Thai chilies
1 clove garlic
1 large lime, juice
5 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp sugar
Method
Marinate the steak fillets with salt, pepper, oyster sauce and soy sauce and then leave them to set for 30 minutes.
In a mortar and pestle grind the chilies and garlic into paste. Add in the rest of the dressing ingredients into the mortar and then mix until the sugar dissolves. Set aside.
Heat the grill or a frying pan on medium high. Once heated, grill the steak for 2 minutes on both sides. Remove from the grill/pan and leave them to rest.
Combine all of the salad vegetables in a large mixing bowl. Slice the cooked steak into large stripes and add into the same mixing bowl. Pour the dressing over the bowl and toss around until the salad is well mixed and coated with the dressing. Serve with steamed Jasmine rice.
