Spicy Grilled Beef-Grape Salad
Author: 
Recipe type: Salad, Rice Accompaniment
Cuisine: Thai
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2
 
Ingredients
  • One 10-ounce piece of sirloin strip steak
  • 2-3 teaspoons vegetable oil
  • 1 cup small seedless red grapes
  • 2 stalks lemongrass, trimmed
  • 4 stems mint
  • 3-4 kaffir lime leaves
  • 2 large cloves garlic, peeled
  • Fresh bird's eye chilies, to taste (I recommend 2 tablespoonfuls.)
  • 2 tablespoons fish sauce
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
  • 1 tablespoon simple syrup (see note in the post)
Instructions
  1. Coat both sides of the steak with the vegetable oil. Grill over charcoal or in a grill pan to desired doneness. Keep the steak covered.
  2. Halve the grapes (You can start this process while the steak is grilling).
  3. Slice the lemongrass as thinly as you can, starting from the root end and stopping when the purple rings disappear at about 2 inches from the base; set aside. Keep the remainder of the stalks for other purposes (as suggested in the video).
  4. Remove the mint leaves from the stems (you can reserve the sprigs for garnish, but this is optional). Pile them up on the chopping board and slice them crosswise into ⅛-inch strips; set aside. Reserve the stems.
  5. Remove the center veins from the kaffir lime leaves. Stack the leaves together, roll them up tightly, and slice them slightly on the diagonal as thinly as you can; set aside.
  6. Trim off the tough bottom parts of the reserved mint stems, keeping only 3-4 inches from the top. Cut them finely crosswise.
  7. Put the mint stems, garlic, and chilies in a mortar or mini-chopper; grind to a fine paste.
  8. In a small bowl, mix together the fish sauce, lime juice, and simple syrup. Add the prepared paste; stir to mix.
  9. Slice the steak thinly against the grain into bite-sized pieces; transfer to a mixing bowl.
  10. Add the prepared herbs and grapes as well as half of the prepared dressing to the steak bowl; toss. Taste to see if more dressing is needed. The salad should be spicy, equally salty, sour, and sweet. If you plan on eating this salad as a stand-alone salad course, you may not need the remaining dressing. But if you will eat this salad the Thai way, i.e. as a rice accompaniment, you want to season it in anticipation of the bland rice. This means you may want to use all of the dressing.
  11. Once the salad tastes right to you, plate and serve it immediately.
Recipe by SheSimmers at https://shesimmers.com/2014/03/spicy-grilled-beef-grape-salad-vichit-mukura-mandarin-oriental-bangkok.html