Tiger Cries Salad

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== Description ==
A spicy Thai beef salad.
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
* ½ cup fresh lime juice
* 3 – 4 tablespoons fish sauce (to taste)
* 4 – 6 shallots, minced
* 4 – 6 serrano peppers, 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 and 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. Note: if you're in a hurry or on a budget, you can leave out the scallions, cuke, tomatoes and lemon and this salad will retain its signature flavor.
=== Marinade ===
# Mix ingredients in a ziploc and let meat marinade from 2 – 24 hours in liquid.
# char grill or broil meat to medium rare, about 3 – 4 minutes per side.
# Let rest at least 10 minutes then slice very thin (¼" 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.
# 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.
# Add lettuce, tomatoes, scallions and mint along with the rest of the dressing.
# Toss the salad until all ingredients are very well coated and mixed.
# Dish salad onto plates and top with slices of cooked beef, make sure plenty of dressing is included in each serving.
# 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 and reserve water to use in steaming.
# Line bottom of bamboo steamer (the stackable sort used for veggies and such) with parchment paper (or cheesecloth sprayed with PAM).
# Fill steamer with soaked rice and cover.
# Pour rice soaking water into wok or dutch oven, add some fresh water until approx 3" depth.
# Place steamer over water in pan, bring water to boil then reduce to strong simmer - don't let water cook away.
# Steam rice for approx 25 minutes, let sit an additional 5 minutes with lid on.
# To make toasted rice powder toast raw sweet rice in a sauté pan on top of stove just as you would sesame seeds - until very light golden brown.
# Use a coffee grinder, blender or food processor to grind to a fine consistency - i like mine fine as white sugar but any texture from couscous, cornmeal, flour, etc is just fine.
# Adds an interesting, nutty and essential flavor to the dressing.
Category:Beef round Recipes
Category:Beef sirloin Recipes
Category:Bibb lettuce Recipes
Category:Cabbage Recipes
Category:Char Recipes
Category:Cherry tomato Recipes
Category:Cucumber Recipes
Category:Dinner Recipes
Category:Grape tomato Recipes
Category:Lemongrass Recipes