Tiger Cries Salad (a Spicy Thai Beef Salad)

==Description==
A fabulous summer meal, marinade the meat and make the dressing the night before then throw dinner together FAST. Excellent for casual dinner parties and dieters. I've had this mouth-watering salad at a couple of different Thai restaurants, I was unable to find a recipe so I combined several to make my own. This salad is very spicy yet the bursts of freshness from the lime and mint make it a celebration for the taste buds. It's extremely addictive and very healthy, no oil!
===Ingredients===
====Marinade====
* 1 lb Beef flank Steak or Beef sirloin Steak or tenderloin Beef (good quality)
* 2 teaspoons white pepper
* 2 tablespoons fish sauce
* 4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
* 2 tablespoons palm sugar
* 8 cloves garlic, minced
====Dressing====
* 2 tablespoons Sugar
* 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
* 3-4 tablespoons fish sauce (to taste)
* 4-6 shallots, minced
* 4-6 serrano peppCategory: Red onion Salad Recipesers, chilis very finely minced or ground to paste
* 2 stalks lemongrass, remove outer stalk and slice very thin or grind
* 3 tablespoons toasted rice powder (ground fine)
====Salad====
* 1 lb fresh tender salad greens (I use the bagged spring mix) or Bibb lettuce
* 1 large red onion, thinly slivered
* 1 bunch scallions or green onions, cut to ½ inch
* 1 cucumber, peeled & seeded cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes or wedges tomatoes
* 1 lemon, cut in half lengthwise and very thinly sliced (toss into salad for garnish/flavor)
* 1 cup fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped
* sticky rice
===Directions===
Prepare a batch of thai sticky rice (aka thai sweet rice) to serve with this salad.<BR>
Note: if you're in a hurry or on a budget, you can leave out the scallions, cuke, tomatoes,& lemon and this salad will retain it's signature flavor.
* Marinade
Mix ingredients in a ziploc and let meat marinade from 2-24 hours in liquid.<BR>
Char grill or broil meat to med rare, about 3-4 minutes per side.<BR>
Let rest at least 10 minutes then slice VERY thin (1/4" or less) against the grain.
======Use very good quality meat for this dish, you want it to be fork-tender and melt-in-your-mouth!======
* Dressing
Mix all dressing ingredients together 1+ hours before serving salad.<BR>
(Be sure to taste and make any necessary adjustments…dressing should be SPICY, Sour, Salty and a just a wee bit Sweet in that order) You may want to make extra dressing to spoon over the sticky rice.
* Salad
Pour half of dressing over the red onions, lemon and cuke in a LARGE salad bowl and let them absorb the flavor, 15+ minutes.<BR>
Add lettuce, tomatoes, scallions and mint along with the rest of the dressing.<BR>
Toss the salad until all ingredients are very well coated and mixed.<BR>
Dish Salad onto plates and top with slices of cooked Beef, make sure plenty of dressing is included in each serving.<BR>
Add a serving of sticky rice to each plate.
* Serving Suggestion
Very pretty to serve this salad on a bed of Purple cabbage Leaves.
* Perfect sticky rice
Soak 1-2 pounds of Thai sweet rice in lukewarm water in a large bowl for 3 hours- drain& reserve water to use in steaming.<BR>
Line bottom of bamboo steamer (the stackable sort used for veggies and such) with parchment paper (or cheesecloth sprayed with Pam).<BR>
Fill steamer with soaked rice and cover.<BR>
Pour rice soaking water into wok or dutch oven, add some fresh water until approx 3" depth.<BR>
Place steamer over water in pan, bring water to boil then reduce to strong simmer - don't let water cook away.<BR>
Steam rice for approx 25 minutes, let sit an additional 5 minutes with lid on.<BR>
* To Make Toasted rice Powder
Toast raw sweet rice in a saute pan on top of stove just as you would sesame seeds - until very light golden brown.<BR>
Use a coffee grinder, blender or food processor to grind to a fine consistency - I like mine fine as white sugar but any testure from cous cous, cornmeal, flour, etc is just fine.<BR>
Adds an interesting, nutty and essential flavor to the dressing.
===Other Links===
==See also==
Category: Thai Salads
Category: Thai Meat DishesCategory:SaladsCategory:Meat Dishes Category:Recipes Category:Dinner Recipes
Category:Thai Recipes
Category: Red onion Salad Recipes
Category: Serrano pepper Salad Recipes
Category: Bibb lettuce Salad Recipes
Category: Grape tomatoes Salad Recipes
category:Lime Recipes
Category:Mint Recipes
Category:Lemongrass Recipes
Category:Char Recipes
category:lime juice Recipes
category:cherry tomato Recipes
category:grape tomatoes Recipes
category:garlic Recipes
category:white pepper Recipes
category:sesame seed Recipes
category:Bibb lettuce Recipes
category:granulated sugar Recipes
category:glutinous rice Recipes
category:palm sugar Recipes
category:glutinous rice Recipes
category:spring salad mix Recipes
category:red onion Recipes
category:red onion Recipes
category:corn flour Recipes
category:cucumber Recipes
category:tomato Recipes
category:lettuce Recipes
category:cabbage Recipes
category:coffee Recipes
category:Onion Recipes
category:Steak Recipes
category:water Recipes
category:Sugar Recipes
category:granulated sugar Recipes
category:flour Recipes
category:cereals Recipes
category:lemon Recipes
category:meal Recipes
category:rice Recipes
category:Beef Recipes
category:cucumber Recipes
category:oil Recipes
category:meat Recipes
category:fish Recipes