Thai beef salad is one of those dishes that makes everyone your new best friend. When I was on my "working" vacation to Thailand (to attend the Royal Thai School of the Culinary Arts) I would eat this salad when we were out and about with the staff and Kris Kridakorn-Odbratt, the school's Executive chef and owner.

After eating this a few times I asked Jackie, one of the instructors to teach my how to make this dish. I think he was delighted that I asked how to make something, as my repertoire of Thai food, at that time was very limited. So with the usual kitchen grilling and comments, he taught me how to make this wonderful dish.

This is a spicy salad and has alot of chilies in it. For non-chile lovers or for those who do not like hellfire heat with their food, you can just omit, switch or cut back the amount of chiles that are in this dish. This is the orginal Thai version, so be warned!

Grilled Thai beef salad

Printable version of this Thai beef salad recipe (word doc).

Ingredients:

12 oz beef sirloin

1        banana leaf, wiped clean

10      Thai eggplants (sub pea eggplant)

9        shallots, julienne

9        Thai chilies. crushed (or just use as many as you would like, 9 is Bangkok spicy!)

½ cup lemongrass, thinly sliced

¼ cup mint leaves, julienne

¼ cup  pakchee farang (cilantro), julienne

3 tablespoons fish sauce

2 tablespoons lime juice

1 tablespoon  sugar

1 head lettuce

Fresh mint for garnish

1 cup lemon juice and water

Instructions:

1.     Trim the beef of any extra fat and wrap in the banana leaf. Tie and grill over hot coals until cooked, about 10 minutes or so. Remove, cool and slice thin.

2.     In a small bowl, mix the fish sauce, lime juice and the sugar together. Toss the sliced beef with the dressing and set aside.

3.     Wash and cut the eggplant into small wedges (leave the pea eggplant whole if using) and soak in acidulated water.

4.     Add the eggplant, the lemongrass and the pakchee farang (cilantro) and mix well.

Serve on a platter with the lettuce on the bottom. Garnish with fresh mint leaves and decorative chilies.

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