Thai Beef Salad, Nam Tok

My mother found the the ultimate Thai cooking website and we are hooked! If you like Thai food this is the go-to recipe guide. Everything we have made from here is the best we have ever had. Seriously...at least for me maybe not stew. :) It is called Import Foods You can buy almost everything on their site to make the dishes and they have video of Thai vendors cooking the dishes so you can really see how it is done. FABULOUS!

This is one of Stewart's all time favorite dishes ever. It is an intensive recipe for the novice so I made Stewart make it all by himself. He loved making it and eating it too. It is at its very best when eaten while still very warm. In Thai language, nam tok is a waterfall. This dish is usually cooked using a barbeque (the juices drip onto charcoal hence the name waterfall) but you can fry or broil the beef just as well. It should be cooked rare to start with. Click here if you're interested in our instant nam tok mix.

Nam Tok

Ingredients:

You need a 1 pound steak, cut fairly thick.

Marinade

1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon tamarind concentrate mixed with 3 teaspoons water
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon chopped Thai chile peppers or if you cant get these use Sanaro peppers instead

Mix the marinade, coat the steak with it and marinade it for at least 3 hours.

The steak is then barbecued, broiled or grilled until on the rare side of medium rare, cut into half inch thick strips and the strips cut into bite sized pieces. The meat can be kept cool until just before you want to eat.

Remaining ingredients

1/3 cup fish sauce
1/3 cup lime juice - ours was little too sour so we will use a little less next time, we had super juicy limes
2-3 tablespoons chopped shallots
2-3 tablespoons chopped coriander/cilantro (including the roots if possible)
2-3 tablespoons chopped mint leaves
2 tablespoons khao koor (see below)
1 tablespoon freshly roasted/fried sesame seeds
1-3 teaspoons freshly ground dried red Thai chilis.

Khao Koor: get a medium sized wok (or skillet is you don't have a wok) fairly hot, and add a couple of tablespoons of uncooked jasmine rice. Keep in movement until the rice starts to turn golden brown. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Grind to a fairly coarse powder in a spice mill, or a mortar and pestle, or a pepper mill or a good clean coffee grinder (all of these work well but keep in mind that a coffee grinder tends to grind too fine--the powder should retain some "texture") We also offer ready-made Khao Koor in premium quality Hand Brand.

Directions

In a wok bring a little oil to medium high heat and add the strips of beef, immediately followed by all the remaining ingredients. Stir fry until heated through (about a minute).

Serve with Thai sticky rice, or as part of a meal with pad Thai and a soup such as tom yum koong (hot and sour shrimp soup).

Enjoy. This is one of our all-time favorites.