Yam Neua (Thai Beef Salad)

Normally you would see this beef salad tossed with all the vegetables to incorporate the meat and the sauce. However, I prefer to eat this as an appetizer and have displayed it as such in the above picture. I don't go to Thai restaurants very often but when I do, this is one of my favorite dishes. The thinly sliced beef and pungent vegetables pair perfectly with the spicy sesame vinaigrette.

Steak Ingredients:

1 pound beef (skirt steak, rump roast, or sirloin)
2 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoon lemongrass (finely ground)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients above and let the beef marinate for at least 2 hours. You then have different choices of cooking methods; obviously grilling is preferred but if you live in an apartment like me, using the broiler in the oven isn't a bad option. You'll want to cook the beef to your desired doneness (rare, medium-rare, medium, etc.) I would recommend to not cook this cut of meat well done; as this will definitely dry out and become tough to chew and eat. Unfortunately, it’s hard to determine the time to cook the beef since the cut and thickness of the beef may be different. When the meat is at your desired doneness; let the meat rest for at least 5-10 minutes before cutting - as all the juices will run out if you cut the meat without resting. To cut: slice the beef as thin as possible against the bias.

The best way to check for your desired doneness of the meat is with a thermometer. Here is the temperature range:

(Temperatures are in degrees Fahrenheit)
Rare 120 - 125
Medium-Rare 130 - 135
Medium 140 - 145
Medium-Well 150 - 155
Well Done 160 - above

Spicy Sesame Vinaigrette Ingredients:

2 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
2 tablespoon palm sugar
2 tablespoon sesame oil
4 Thai chili peppers (finely chopped)
2 garlic cloves

Sauce Directions:

Combine the lime juice, fish sauce, soy sauce, and palm sugar and mix well. Next, slowly drizzle the sesame oil into the mixture while whisking. Lastly, mix in the chili peppers and garlic.

Salad Ingredients:

5-7 green leaf lettuce leaves (roughly chopped)
1/2 white onion (thinly sliced)
1/2 red onion (thinly sliced)
1 tomato (thinly sliced)
1/2 cucumber (halved and thinly sliced)
1 scallion (roughly chopped)
8-10 sprigs cilantro (roughly chopped).
2 jalapenos (thinly sliced)
Handful Vietnamese coriander (just the leaves)

Plating:

Add the salad mixture to the bottom of your serving vessel (plate, bowl, etc.) and place the thin slices of beef on top of the salad. Now drizzle the dressing on top of the beef. This dish can be served warm or cold. However, if you are serving warm, try not to place the hot beef on top of the salad as this will wilt the vegetables.

Egg Salad

 



I know what you're thinking already, egg salad? Where's the abundance of egg? Well, the egg is in the dressing. This is dish is a take on a classic Laotian salad, "yam salat", that my mother use to make. I believe her dressing was a mixture of thousand island and something else. I really can't remember on the top of my head right now. But I basically made this dish because I had tons of veggies left and didn't want it spoil. Of course, you may all know of the many variations of lettuce wraps that I usually make when dieting, well, that started to get boring. The dressing I created is actually a basic aioli with egg yolks from the hard boiled eggs. As I stated earlier, the egg is all in the dressing.

Ingredients:

1/2 head green leaf lettuce (roughly chopped)

1/2 cucumber (peeled and thinly sliced)

4 scallions (cut into 3 inch pieces and then julienne)

8-10 sprigs cilantro (roughly chopped)

2 Roma tomatoes (seeded and julienned)

5 eggs (hard boiled)

1 egg (raw)

1 cup canola oil

2 garlic cloves

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Juice 1/2 lemon

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1/8 cup water

Directions:

Mix the lettuce, cucumbers, scallions, cilantro, and tomatoes well in a large bowl, the bigger the better.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add 5 eggs to the boiling water and cook for 10-12 minutes. Discard the hot water in the sink and begin adding cold water from the faucet to help cool it down. Once the eggs have cooled down, peel the shells of the eggs and discard. When all of the eggs have been peeled, gently cut the eggs in a circular motion (do not cut all the way through, only to the yolk) until it is split in half. Remove the yolks and set aside in a bowl. Thinly cut the egg whites and add them to the salad mixture.

This is probably redundant but I'll show you how to make an aioli again. In a food processor add the egg whites of 1 egg. Set the speed to mix. Slowly drizzle half a cup of canola oil until the mixture thickens (4-5 minutes) now add the raw egg yolk and continue drizzling the remaining oil. You mixture should look like mayonnaise  (that's what it is at this point). With you setting still on mix, add lemon juice, salt, and vinegar. Now add your garlic and set your speed to process for about 1 minute (now it's an aioli). Add your hard boiled egg yolks and water to the mixture with your speed set on mix. The texture of this dressing shouldn't be thick like mayonnaise, if it is add a little more water. Your dressing shouldn't be to runny either so be careful when you add the water. Remove the dressing from the food processor and chill in the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes.

To serve, add dressing to the salad and toss until everything has been properly dressed.

Side note:

My mom likes to add stir fried beef in the salad as well. If you would like to add this to the salad here's how to make it. You'll need 1/2 pound paper think slices of beef (doesn't matter which cut), 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce, 1 garlic clove (minced), and 1 tablespoon of canola oil. Heat the oil on medium high heat and add your garlic and then your beef. Add your oyster sauce shortly afterwards and cook for about 4-5 minutes or until well done. Let this cool before adding to your salad. It's also customary to add all of the sauce from the stir fry to your salad as well, it'll give it the extra saltiness that pairs well with the slightly tart dressing. In the picture above I actually used thinly sliced pork shoulders and cooked it the same way.

Sin Dahd (Korean Style Barbeque) with a Trio of Sauces

This dish always brings back good memories. When I was teaching and traveling throughout Laos I couldn't wait to get back to Vientiane just so that I could hangout with family and head out to the restaurant Poisan and enjoy a night of eating and drinking. This restaurant is known for their Sin Dahd or Korean style barbecue. They serve it with an assortment of vegetables and your choice of protein (pork, beef, chicken, shrimp, etc.). What was unique was the dome shaped griddle that was heated with hot coals, I truly believe that once the fat drips and singes the coals the aroma it creates is incomparable.

Unfortunately, I live in an apartment and I don't have the dome shape griddle to mimic this experience. Here in the States we tend to just use a regular non-stick flat top griddle. Many of you who have had this during a family gathering know all too much about the electric griddle. I'm probably not alone when experiencing the power outages and blackouts this creates at home, especially when you have two or more griddles cooking at the same time.

For dinner last night I went with simple and very basic Sin Dat. The vegetables included red leaf lettuce, cilantro, scallions, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, chili peppers, and garlic. For the protein I opted for pork and lamb, both thinly sliced for quick cooking. I prepared a trio of sauces for dipping that included tamarind infused chili soybean, sweet and sour soy, and savory and spicy pineapple.

Wrapping Ingredients:

1 head red leaf lettuce (or any lettuce of your choice)

1 package rice paper (from wrapping)

Several sprigs of cilantro,

2 scallions (roughly chopped)

10-15 cherry tomatoes (halved)

1 large onion (quartered and thinly sliced)

1/2 cucumber (julienne cut)

5 chili peppers (thinly sliced)

4 garlic cloves (minced)

1 pound pork butt w/skin (it's actually the shoulder, paper thin slices)

1 pound lamb arm (thinly sliced)

Directions:

You'll want to separate the skin from the pork butt where the fat meets the actual meat. Save the skin and fat pieces, you'll be using this to cook you meat in. Set your griddle to 275 degrees and add your skin and fat pieces. Once the oil starts releasing from the fat start adding your proteins and onions. Cooking until done and being wrapping with your favorite ingredients and dip in your favorite sauce.

Tamarind Infused Chili Soybean Sauce:

4 tablespoon chili soybean paste

2 tablespoon granulated sugar

4 tablespoon tamarind paste (reconstituted)

Directions:

Mix all ingredients well and set aside for dipping. Because the chili soybean paste is fermented it has a very salty taste so use this sauce sparingly.

Sweet and Sour Soy Sauce:

1 large shallot (minced)

4 garlic cloves (minced)

1/2 tablespoon canola oil

1/4 cup light soy sauce

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

4 tablespoon tamarind paste (reconstituted)

Directions:

Add oil, shallots, and garlic to a sauce pan on medium high heat. Saute until shallots are transparent. Add soy sauce, sugar, and tamarind paste to the same sauce pan. Mix all ingredients in the sauce pan well and set aside. You can either serve the sauce as is or you can opt to puree the mixture for a smoother and more well rounded taste.  Add thinly sliced chili peppers and garlic for that extra kick.

Savory and Spicy Pineapple Sauce:

1 1/2 cup fresh pineapple (1-2 inch chunks)

1 large shallot (thinly sliced)

3 garlic cloves (roughly chopped)

2 Thai chili peppers

4-5 tablespoon fish sauce

Directions:

Add pineapples to a saute pan on medium high heat. Cook for about 5-7 minutes or until pineapple starts to caramelize. Then add shallots, garlic, and chili peppers to the saute pan. Continue cooking all ingredients for about 3-5 minutes. Add the entire contents of the saute pan into a blender and puree. Add fish sauce for the added salty taste.

Fish Tacos with Kaffir Lime Aioli

The other day I saw one of my friend's post on Facebook that his wife made him fish tacos. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't invited but that just made me crave it even more. This dish is pretty simple but has a lot of components. I'll try to break it down as easy as possible.

Fish preparations:

2 pounds tilapia filets
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 tablespoon cayenne peppery
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder

Directions:

Combine all ingredients and mix well, let it marinate for at least 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350°. Place parchment paper on a baking sheet and bake the fish for approximately for 15 minutes (be careful to not overcook, you want the fish to still look and taste moist).

Korean/Spanish rice:

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 shallot thinly sliced
1 cup brown Korean rice
32 ounces chicken stock
2 Roma tomatoes (roughly chopped)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder

Directions:

In a deep sauce pan, sauté the shallots in butter and add rice once all the butter melts. Add tomatoes and all the dry ingredients. Then add 1/3 of the stock and cook rice in medium high heat and keep it covered. Once most of the liquid has reduce add another 1/3 of the stock. Repeat this again until all the stock is gone and the rice is cooked.

Cabbage aioli slaw:

1/2 head of red/purple cabbage (thinly sliced)
1 cup kaffir lime aioli

Directions:

Blanch the cabbage in a pot of boiling hot water for about 3 minutes. Strain and let cool. Add kaffir lime aioli (see previous post for this recipe) and toss.

Pico de gallo:

1/2 large onion (diced)
2 jalapenos (diced)
1/2 cup cilantro (roughly chopped)
1 medium tomato (diced)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Juice of 1 lime

Directions:

Mix all ingredients well and adjust salt and sour preference by adding salt or lime juice.

Assembling tacos:

You're going to need tortillas (I used flour) and lettuce. Simply layer the lettuce on top of the tortilla, and then just add the rice, slaw, and pico de gallo. Drizzle with extra ailoi and enjoy.

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Greek Salad

I think my last post was lost in the blogger blackhole. It's always fun to repost stuff... Anyway, I'm still looking to lose some of the vacation weight I gained. With tons of fresh produce on hand I decided to make a variation of a Greek salad.

Ingredients:

6-8 Romain lettuce hearts (roughly chopped)
1/2 Roma tomato (quartered)
5 sprigs cilantro (roughly chopped)
Handful of bean sprouts
Several pieces of crumbled goat cheese
8 thinly sliced cucumbers
Sprinkle of kosher salt
Pinch of black pepper
6 shrimp (boiled and peeled)
2 pepperoncini peppers
2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 juice of lemon

Directions:

Mix all ingredients well. Drizzle olive oil and add lemon juice. Add salt and pepper and serve.

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Cubed steak salad

Day 3 of cleaning out the fridge... I emailed my cousin Ava today to see how she was doing. After a brief exchange in messages she asked for a recipe that involved beef. I asked her if she liked the Vietnamese cubed steak salad or Bo Luc Lac and she answered yes of course. I fell in love with this dish about 10 years ago while dining with friends at Thanh Thanh in Arlington. I never asked for the recipe while I was there so I came up with my own variation of it.

Ingredients:

1 pound beef (I used sirloin tips here, but you can use almost anything especially tenderloins, try to stay away from the less tender cuts) cut in 1-1 1/2 inch cubes
4 tablespoon oyster sauce
4 tablespoon hoison sauce
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
2 tablespoon canola oil

Directions:

Combine all ingredients except oil in a bowl and mix well. In a hot wok or pan, heat oil on high heat. Once oil has a slight sheen add sauce from bowl and stir well (be very careful combining anything with hot oil will cause it to fly everywhere). After the sauce is heated up (about 20-30 seconds) add beef and stir constantly until sauce thickens and forms a glaze on the beef (about 4-5 minutes). Serve this directly over a bed of lettuce, pickled onions, and tomatoes (I didn't have any tomatoes in the fridge so I substituted with green apples).

Bed ingredients:

5-6 romaine lettuce leaves (roughly chopped)
1/2 yellow or white onion (thinly sliced and pickled)
1 large tomato or 1/2 green apple thinly sliced
- Pickling ingredients:
     21 tablespoon water
     7 tablespoon white vinegar (3 to 1 parts water to vinegar)
     2 tablespoon sugar
     1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
     (Let this sit for at least an hour.)

It's also good to have a dipping sauce for the meat just in case you like it extra tart.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon black pepper
1/2 juice of lime

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in small sauce bowl and mix well.

Recap:

You will want to assemble the bed first and keep it in the refrigerator. This will keep the lettuce fresh and crisp. After the meat has been sauted you'll want to top off the bed of salad immediately. If there is extra sauce left in the pan don't net afraid to top off the salad with it as well.

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Lahb Gai (Laotian Minced Chicken Salad)

I still don't understand why when you go to any Thai/Laotian restaurant they call this "larb", the mispronunciation of this word by everyone drives me nuts. So I'm spelling it more like how it sounds "lahb". This is probably the most classic dish in Lao cuisine and every one and anyone who knows a Laotian or Thai person has probably had different variations of this dish.

Side note:

I was having a late night dinner in downtown Austin so my friends and I went to Thai Passion since they opened up late. We ordered several dishes including their "Larb Gai" yes...that's how they spelled it there too. When it came out, you could barely notice what type of meat/protein they used for the dish. In all my times I've had this dish I don't think I've ever seen anyone use a blender to process the meat. Needless to say, that's very nontraditional and it takes away from the texture needed in this dish. My mom would've laughed and returned the dish as soon as she saw it (actually, she probably would've gone back to the kitchen to show them how to use a clever or a knife to minced the meat correctly). Anyway, I'm not saying stay away from this restaurant, but if you're looking for something more traditional and authentic, definitely don't order this dish there.

Lahb Gai (minced chicken salad):

Ingredients:

8 kaffir lime leaves

1 medium shallot

Mint leaves

1 large scallion

Cilantro

1-2 fresh chili pepper

2 limes

6 tablespoon fish sauce

1/2 tablespoon dried crushed chili pepper

1 tablespoon roasted rice powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 chicken breast, skin on

1 chicken quarter

6-8 chicken gizzards

6-8 chicken hearts

3-4 chicken liver

Directions:

Cut (chiffonade) the lime leaves and thinly slice the scallions, shallots and chili pepper. Rough chop the cilantro and set all vegetables aside.

Cut the gizzards, skin, hearts and liver into small thin pieces. Mince the rest of the chicken.

In saute pan begin to cook all of the chicken and chicken parts in medium high heat until done.

Drain fat from cook chicken meat and let cool for 5-10 minutes.

Start adding fish sauce, lime juice, rice powder, dried chili peppers and salt. Mix ingredients into chicken thoroughly. Then start adding 1 vegetable at a time and mix after each.

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