Happy Trails For Us: My Reluctant Blog

Ingredients:

lb tender beef steak, such as top sirloin.


For the salad:

1/2 red onion thinly sliced

1 tomato, cut into wedges

1 cucumber, peeled, cut lengthwise in half and thinly sliced

1-2 Thai bird’s-eye chilies or according to taste (I use 1-2 serrano chilies)


For the sauce:

1/4 cup Thai fish sauce

1/4 cup lime juice

2 - 3 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup cilantro leaves, roughly chopped

1/4 cup chopped scallions

Grill beef until medium to well-done. Slice thinly on the bias and set aside. Combine all the salad ingredients and add the sliced beef. Make the sauce by mixing together all the ingredients and toss with the salad.

Serve over a bed of green lettuce (e.g. Romaine) whole or chopped, or place individual servings over a large lettuce leaf.

Variations - Mint and sliced shallots can be added to the salad. Grilled shrimp or calamari may be substituted for the beef. Instead of lettuce, the salad may be served with a wedge of fresh cabbage. Palm sugar (or any other sugar) may be added for a slight touch of sweetness.

This salad uses many of the same ingredients in Jerry's Thai Chicken Salad, so the same seasoning guidelines posted for his recipe can be followed for this salad:

quote:
Adjust the seasonings – there should be a balance of hot, sour, and salt. To adjust seasonings in Thai food follow these rough guidelines . . . if it is too sweet add more fish sauce . . . too salty add more sugar . . . not tangy enough - add more lime juice . . . not hot enough - add more chili

I had some problems adjusting the seasoning for this one, I think that for my personal taste there was too much fish sauce, which evened out a bit with some sugar. I left out the chilies, but added sliced radishes and mint. And, obviously from the pictures, my version became the one with grilled shrimp.

Thanks, Maria, for giving me something outside my range, this is part of the fun of Salad Samplers.