Title exclamation point highly necessary!
The other week, my sister came over to deliver our wonderful demon Pippa back to us in Los Angeles (she lives in Vegas) because Pippa was too young to go to the doggy boarding place with her equally smelly brother while we are traveling. To thank her for watching Pipps for an entire month, we made plans to take her to a big fancy dinner…plans that were quickly squashed once my sister made the suggestion that we just stay in and cook a big Thai meal for Johnny and his trainer Malcolm.
I jumped at this because, well, not only is my sister a great cook, but I really don’t ever make Thai food. In New York, Thai food delivery provides so much yumminess that it’s just not something I ever think about sitting down and doing.
So we did it. While the boys were out, we hit up the regular ol’ grocery store (LA traffic is a bitch and the 2/3 miles to Thai Town would have taken about an hour) and created a Thai feast just while walking up and down the aisles.
On the menu: chicken satay with peanut sauce, spicy beef salad (yum nua),a garlicy ground pork stir fry with green chili (SO good mixed into jasmine rice) and lastly, chicken and broccoli stir fry with snap peas and curry sauce.
While I want you guys to have the recipe to all of this, I think it’s best broken down. My sister explains it best, so I had her email her recipe. This is it in her own words:
Yum = Salad, Nua = Beef
This dish really epitomizes Thai cooking. Done properly, it embodies everything Thai food should be; balancing the principles of thai cuisine. The key to Thai food in general is combing salty, sweet, sour, and spicy. You should not be able to identify whether this dish is more or less of one particular flavor, hence creating the perfect balance.
You will need:
A well marbled NY steak, grilled to your liking, preferably on a charcoal grill. I prefer no more than medium rare; the lime will do some additional cooking. Allow to rest at room temp before slicing.
4 Shallots or 1 small red onion (I like a strong onion flavor), sliced into skinny wedges
1 bunch Cilantro, coarsely chopped, no stems
Tomatoes, cherry (1/2 c sliced in half) or 1-2 vine ripened (cut into wedges)
2 Limes
1 tbs Palm sugar (or brown sugar, but palm sugar is really worth the effort to locate; note that palm sugar is a bit sweeter, so adjust to your liking)
1-2 tbs Fish sauce
According to your spice tolerance, Thai chili powder (roasted sundried chilis ground into a fine powder, and very spicy!). I use about 1 tbs, be prepared to sweat!
Also according to your tolerance, Fresh Thai chili peppers, sliced thinly – also very spicy! I use 3-4; use red for color!
Grill the steak as directed above and slice into thin strips after allowing to rest for 15-20 min. Add to a large mixing bowl. Because the palm sugar is so pasty, put it in a small bowl and add some of the lime juice and mush into a thick liquid form. The non-vegetable ingredients go first into the steak bowl, lime, fish sauce, palm sugar. Toss with your hands to incorporate all over the steak. Add the rest of the veggies, toss and TASTE. Tasting as you go is the most important part. You are eating it, so add more fish sauce if it needs more salt, more sugar if it is too lime-y, etc. Every Thai mom has their variation, so make it like YOU like it. Isn’t that what cooking is all about?
If you want to get fancy, mound into a shallow bowl or platter on a bed of frilly lettuce and garnish with lime wedges and more cilantro and a chili pepper flower.
LOVE YOU!
…So there you have it. Easy enough, right? Of course I had my camera on hand for this wonderfulness. Don’t mind the other dishes, I will share those recipes later 
Steak, why you so delicious? If I had to kill you, I would not eat you. But I don’t. So I eat you.
As you can see, we like our shit still moo’ing. I think this salad is best made with rare steak, but of course you can do it however you’d like if you wanna be a brat like that geez sorry what goshhh chill out.
Anddddd as many of you all know, the addition of lime juice cooks up the meat all by itself. Apparently lime prefers it’s meat medium.
See? Still moo’ing but definitely a weak, faint, sad moo, probably said through tears. God I am terrible umm…look! Sugar!
I LOVE onion. Can’t get enough of it in a salad. Boyfriend has to deal with onion breath. That’s the trade for having such a perfect girlfriend, sorry.
Toss it around, put it on a pretty plate and voilà! You are done and you have a delicious meal to serve that people will definitely be asking about. You can tell them it’s your own secret recipe because you are 1/8th Thai, I don’t mind. See! I AMMM perfect.
Enjoy!! xx
Yum! To be honest, I’ve NEVER had Thai food. Grew up in Wyoming and nobody up there knows anything about any other culture”s food. Steak and potatoes mostly. Can’t wait to try this recipe! What would you suggest I order my first time visiting a Thai restaurant? And yes, you are pretty damn perfect.
When you say add some lemon to the palm sugar, do you mean to add some lime to it? There is no lemon listed above that sentence.
correcting now, sorry! yep lime.
Thanks beautiful. I might try to surprise my hubby with this tomorrow if he’s feeling adventurous.
Ha ha. That is awesomely described. We like our beef “moo-ing”. Wonderful! Hubby must at some point type some words in or I don’t believe he exists. Thanks again for a lift on a cool moody saturday.
I love how simple this is — less than 10 ingredients, a grill, a bowl, and a knife. I already have a bottle of fish sauce and Palm sugar sounds like a good thing to have around (is turbinado a decent substitute?), so getting the rest would cost about $12 . . . done and done, tasty Thai dinner tonight. Great formatting and pictures too!
No turbinado! Will not dissolve properly and will make your salad crunchy. Soft brown sugar is better… Cheers!
haha, thanks tina! that’s my sister everyone
she will answer your questions because she is the thai food queen!
Thanks for the tip, Tina — no turbinado.
Do you recommend seasoning the steak with salt and pepper before grilling?
SLS0, no need to preseason, but what really bumps up the steak flavor-factor is getting a NY steak with plenty of fat. Fat is flavor and Thai’s love their meat fatty!
Looks so amazing!!! I find myself pinning all your recipes on pinterest.com. Better yet, If I make this for my husband I know he will be so into his meal he won’t even notice I drank the entire bottle of wine.
Can you please post the other recipes too when you get time!! I love thai food. Do u have a roti with peanut sauce recipe?
Thank god I have your recipes to try to cook to impress! So far I’ve been doing pretty good. I usually just skip any prep work and go right to the grill.
Yumm looks soo good, will attempt this soon
I’ve been wanting to ask, do you or sis have a thai tea recipe you can share?
Yes I do! I’ll post soon. Standby
I love Thai beef salad. You have my mouth watering…can’t wait to try this! Thanks for sharing.
I could not make this today because I lack Thai Chili Powder. I live in a fairly Asian area of LA County so tomorrow I will try the Indian market and the HK Market to get the right spice. I’ll go to Cost Plus World Market if I have to (but I bet they won’t have it). Or maybe I’ll just call the 2 thai restaurants near me to see if they would sell me some. I really want to try this.
Don’t worry! It is definitely not the most necessary of ingredients. I’m sure Serrano chilis or green thai will be fine!
i’m salivating and can’t wait to find a good piece of meat for it. thanks for posting!
Soak your thinly sliced red onion in lemon juice for 10 minutes – it take’s away that offensive after taste whilst still retaining that delicous onion flavor.
Looks so good! And your photo captions are hilarious!
I made this today, minus the onions (sorry! just didn’t have any on hand) and tomatoes. I served it over quinoa (which you could prob do when you are doing low-carb, since it’s a complete protein that has all sorts of amazing nutritional qualities).
I LOVE lime juice mixed with brown sugar. Best base to start off that Thai flavor profile. Also, I ordered that Thai cookbook you mentioned. Cannot wait to cook from it!
Last thing – where in NYC do you pick up your palm sugar? I know there must be a few great sources but I guess I’d love to know your go-to spots for Thai ingredients. (I write about ethnic food and love hearing where other people shop.)
So dericious (no that’s not a typo). I added some watercress just so I could pretend that I was eating a salad with some steak on top, rather than chowing down a steak with a garnish of tomatoes and herbs. I may try it next time with flank steak because it’s a leaner and cheaper cut of steak, but I certainly wouldn’t change a thing with this recipe!
Good evening
I’ll sure try your Sister recipe but yet : I have a very fond memories of a Thai salad with marinated raw beef. Do you know such a recipe? Please DO!
That not cooked beef was accommodated with green papaya, Thai lemongrass and Thai Basilica.
Unfortunately, the restaurant closed before I could return. And despite my best efforts I’m never really “right” on the marinade.
Help would be really welcome and appreciated !
Fact is that I would be delighted if you would ad to the display of your talents an exploitation of your Mother’s and Sister’s (talents) fore more video showing the ingredients :Google translator dasn’t seem to have much nose for those kind off things.
Ending this message, I dare suggest that you try some Quails (Flambéed with marc de Bourgogne) with italian grapes or Guinea fowl with chestnuts ? Those to poultry deserved to be well Wrapped in Bacon…
It’s simple and you should get that way the tastiest bacon you’ll have.
Shockingly enough the recipes I find while translating “Cailles aux Raisins” et “Pintade au marrons” jump over the elementary fact that those birds must be “BIEN BARDES!” before cooking. The web is full off criminals!
Best regards!