Thai Grill Beef Salad

This is one my favorite salads. The taste and ingredients used in the dressing is very similar to the Thai dish 'Larb' that my dad used to cook for us when we were kids. You can serve the salad by itself as a light meal; serve it as a side dish to a meal or serve it with steam rice as a meal on its own.

Thai Grill Beef Salad

Serves: 2 to 4
Preparation Time: 15 to 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 to 15 minutes
Marinate time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
For Marinate:
2 – 1 inch thick, boneless New York strip steaks – fat removed and poked with fork all over
2 cloves garlic – crushed
1 teaspoon ginger – grated
1 tablespoon light soya sauce
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons Chinese rice wine, cooking wine
1 teaspoon sugar or grated palm sugar
Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Salad Dressing:
1/3 cup shallots, thinly sliced
1/3 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
1/3 cup mint, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon or to taste crushed red chili pepper – toasted (toast chili pepper in a small skillet on low heat until fragrant)
1 tablespoon uncooked sweet rice – lightly toasted on a skillet and grinded to a coarse powder
2 tablespoon fish sauce (adjust to taste)
1 tablespoon sugar or grated palm sugar (adjust to taste)
Juice of 1 to 2 limes (adjust to taste)

Other ingredients:
2 medium tomatoes, thinly sliced
2 medium cucumbers, thinly sliced
2 handfuls of romaine lettuce, roughly chopped

Directions:

1. Mix all marinate ingredients except for beef in a small bowl and adjust according to taste. Coat both sides of the beef with this mixture in a shallow dish and let it marinate for about 30 minutes or so.
2. Mix all salad ingredients in a bowl and adjust according to taste and keep aside.
3. Heat a griddle skillet pan or a skillet on high heat until the pan is hot. Spray with oil and cook the steaks on high heat for about 3 minutes on each side to get color.
4. Reduce heat and cook till your desire doneness. For a little well done meat, after reducing the heat, cover the pan halfway and let it cook through.
5. When done, transfer the meat to a plate, cover loosely with foil and let it rest for 5 minutes before slicing the meat into thin strips.
6. To serve, add tomato, cucumber and lettuce in a big mixing bowl and add half of the salad dressing. Toss well and transfer to a serving platter. Top it up with sliced beef and pour more dressing on top. Serve with steam rice.

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