Lamai Newsletter

Volume Two, August 2010

As promised, this volume of the Lamai Newsletter is dedicated to a Thai recipe culled from our staff. It is a dish that is common throughout Thailand, and is found on most Thai menus here as well. We hope you find it interesting (and basic) enough to try at home. And if the results are favorable, please copy-and-paste, and forward to your friends. Any comments or suggestions are encouraged.

SUZY’S COOKING CORNER

When we asked one of our favorite therapists what Thai dish we could learn easily to prepare at home, she answered, “That could describe most Thai food!”

So we narrowed our request even more: Our dish should be quick, simple, AND easy to prepare. Her response: How about ‘yum neau’ (beef salad)?

With that, we welcome you to Suzy’s Cooking Corner. We hope you enjoy the results as much as we did.

PS: There is a surprise waiting for all who continue reading until the end!

YUM NEAU (BEEF SALAD)

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes (simultaneous with prep)
Feeds four as a side dish (Thai style)







Ingredients:
¾ - 1lb flank steak*
2 limes
fish sauce (to taste)
3 small tomatoes
6 scallions
1 medium onion
2 small cucumbers
3-4 mint leaves
1 small bunch cilantro

*While we prefer flank steak, most ‘lower half cuts’ of beef will work, as long as it’s a relatively thin cut…As a matter of fact, the Thai translation for ‘flank steak’ is “neau” (beef) “bai pai” (flat like an oar, paddle)

Grill the (unseasoned) flank steak at a medium-to-high heat, until med-rare: brown to crispy brown on the outside, pink in the middle.


Once removed from the grill (and in our ‘test kitchen’ we relied on a George Foreman-type indoor electric grill), allow the meat to return to room temperature (the red meat will actually continue cooking once removed from the heat, so allow for that extra ‘cooking’ and don’t leave on the grill too long).

While the flank steak is set aside, it’s time to prep the fresh ingredients that have been assembled.

As in most Asian cooking, where food is prepared in bite-sized portions, our ingredients should be sliced accordingly.


Suzy set about quartering the two limes and three tomatoes, cutting the scallions in one-inch pieces (2/3 of each stalk is usable, but once the ‘life’ of the stalk no longer holds a crunch, you should discard…for soup, stew, or curry dishes you may be less judicious, since the texture of the stalk is less of a concern), coring then quartering the onions (then separating the pieces by hand so that each slice stands alone), and halving the cucumbers length-wise before side-slicing them in ½ in pieces.

As each of the above was prepared, they were gathered en masse on a broad plate and set aside. I’m not sure if this a unique Thai maneuver, but the net result is that you have created a colorful plate of ready-to-use veggies. By this point (appx 15 minutes), the meat was cool enough to be handled by our chef.

The grilled flank was first cut into three equal pieces, and then each piece was thinly side-sliced (1/4 in) against the grain of the meat. As the meat was sliced it was dropped into a bowl large enough to accommodate all the ingredients. A ceramic bowl is ideal. (Our meal may be prepared and served in the same container, avoiding any need to transfer the final product into one last bowl, and allowing the juices that cling to the side of the ceramic bowl to continue flavoring the ingredients inside.). The side-slicing maneuver gives each piece of meat more of a surface to interact with the juices that Suzy was about to add.

Into the bowl of sliced meat is added the juice of the limes. After that, it’s time to balance the tartness of the lime with the saltiness of fish sauce. If you’re not familiar with the use of fish sauce as a condiment, proceed cautiously: The difference between ‘not enough’ and ‘inedible’ may be one dash of the good stuff! Our advice is to add a dash, tumble thoroughly, then taste before repeating the same steps.

Once the meat is ‘seasoned to taste’ (and a note of common sense that we are guilty of overlooking on occasion: keep in mind that other diners are trusting your taste), toss in the pre-cut veggies, except the mint and cilantro, and turn the entire mixture for a minute to evenly distribute the varied tastes. The mint leaves can be torn by hand or chopped irregularly, though to protect the essence of the mint, this is best done at the last moment, and added to the mix during the final ‘toss’ of the ingredients. (Note on cilantro: This is an herb that is best used isolated from other ingredients. Thais rarely ‘cook’ with it, but rather keep it as the last ingredient to add to a dish: when it is cooked, or spends too much time nestled up against other herbs and spices cilantro tends to lose is wild, sweet taste. The one exception to this is the use of cilantro when preparing ‘Nam Phrik Pla’, but we’ll save that story for another Newsletter! When eating in public, you’ll notice that it is usually draped over the top of the prepared dish. At home, or in other private settings, it isn’t uncommon to simply place a dish of cilantro stalks on the table along with the prepared food, and let the diners adorn their dishes as they feel fit.

‘Yum Neau’ is a dish that is frequently served with ‘sticky rice’, though plain steamed rice is perfectly suitable as a partner to this tasty dish, and much easier to prepare (and more common to find) for most us.

As with all Thai traditional food, it is customary to ‘dress’ the dining table with one ‘side’ dish per diner, allowing room for one large container of steamed rice to be passed around (or served by the host if being polite). Once each diner has a portion of rice on his plate, he is then encouraged to taste from each of the prepared plates, adding small portions of the prepared food to his plate of rice.

One final note: “Yum Neau” is literally “Beef Salad”, although in many Thai restaurants you will see a listing among the salads for “Neau Nam Tok”, which translates as “waterfall beef.” This is the same dish, though for the life of me I can’t find out what the waterfall has to do with it, and none of our Thai friends at Lamai can agree on an answer, either! If anyone has an answer to this one, please let us know.

Sanook! (Enjoy!)

PPS: I promised a surprise for all who read through to the end. Here it is: The recipe above is a delightful dish, and is very palatable to Western taste. However, Suzy offers the following alternative for a more ‘Thai-style” interpretation of the same dish. Our caveat is that it is probably spicier than what you’re used to, so you might want to schedule a trial run before inviting guests over!

Ingredients:

¾ - 1lb Flank Steak
2 limes
fish sauce (to taste)
3 small tomatoes
6 scallions
1 medium onion
2 small cucumbers
3-4 mint leaves
1 small bunch cilantro
(same as the recipe above)

To this add:
2-tbl chili paste with soya bean (“nam phrik pao”)
1 stalk lemongrass (“tdah krai”)
6 kaffir lime leaves (“bai makroot”)
3-4 Thai peppers (“phrik kii nu”)

Follow the same cooking instructions as above for the beef. While the beef returns to room temperature, add the chili paste to the ceramic bowl. To this add the juice of the lime, and set aside to marinate briefly.


Prepare the veggies as above. To the plate of prepped veggies, add finely chopped lemongrass, using only the white/lighter (bottom) portion of the stalk. It shouldn’t be pulverized, though the more finely chopped the better.

Add the kaffir lime leaves by removing them from their stalk, then rolling them tightly before finely chopping these as well.

The final ‘new’ ingredient is the Thai pepper, which should also be finely chopped and added to the ‘prep’ plate. (Each of these alternative ingredients pack a wallop, which is why they should be finely chopped: a little goes long way.)

A note you might find interesting regarding the Thai peppers. There are numerous peppers used in Thai cooking, and to ask for “Thai peppers” may not get you very far in a Thai market. The specific peppers used in this recipe (and a very popular pepper in Thai kitchens) are called “phrik kii nu”, which translates, literally, as “mouse shit peppers.” Don’t let your enthusiasm be dampened by the translation: the name refers merely to the small size and shape of these fiery little numbers. And if the situation calls for you to ask for them by name, don’t be shy: this isn’t a slang term. It is how everyone refers to them, from the meekest grandma to a well-dressed businessman, to a saffron-robed monk.