Fried Sun-Dried Beef (Thai Beef Jerky) with Dried Chilli Dipping Sauce from Lers Ros Thai Restaurant, San Francisco: Neua Tod and Jaew (เนื้อแดดเดียวทอดและแจ่ว)
Author: 
Recipe type: Main Dish, Appetizer, Meat
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 1 lb top round steak, cut into strips measuring approximately 4 inches long, ½ inch wide, and ¼ inch thick*
  • 2 tablespoons fish sauce
  • 1 tablespoon dark or light soy sauce
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • ½ teaspoon ground white (or black) pepper
  • Vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
  1. Heat the oven to 120°F and set a rack in the middle of it. Spread out the beef strips on a large cookie sheet and let them dry out in the oven for one hour. Turn the beef strips over and let them dry for another hour.
  2. You know the beef strips are ready when their surface is dry to the touch while the texture is still somewhat soft and elastic. When that happens, remove the beef strips from the oven or the drying basket and place them in a mixing bowl.
  3. Meanwhile, heat up some vegetable oil in a deep-fryer or a 8- to 12-inch frying pan with a raise edge on medium heat. You only need just enough vegetable oil to come up to about 2 inches from the bottom of the pan. Line a platter with a piece of paper towel and keep it nearby.
  4. Add the fish sauce, soy sauce, pepper, and sugar to the beef strip bowl and toss; make sure that all of the beef strips are evenly coated with the seasoning sauce.
  5. Test the oil by sticking a wooden skewer or chopstick into the oil, making sure the tip of the wooden skewer touches the bottom of the pan. If you see tiny bubbles rising from the point where the wooden skewer touches the pan, the oil is ready.
  6. Shake excess seasoning off of the beef strips and fry them in two batches. Be sure to stir the beef strips around to ensure even cooking. On medium heat, the beef only needs to be in the oil for less than a minute. You’ll see that the beef will brown up and develop a nice, glossy coating. When that happens, transfer them to the paper towel-lined platter.
  7. Serve the fried sun-dried beef with jaew dipping sauce.
Notes
Make sure that the grain of the beef runs perpendicular to the length of the strips; otherwise, it would be difficult for you not only to bite a piece off a strip but also to chew it. The version of jaew served at Lers Ros has one part lime juice, one part fish sauce, some toasted rice powder (I would say about a tablespoon for every ½ cup of fish sauce-lime juice mixture), just a tad of sugar of round out the flavor, some chopped cilantro and sliced shallots or red onions. No galangal is added.
Recipe by SheSimmers at https://shesimmers.com/2011/01/fried-sun-dried-beef-with-dried-chilli-dipping-sauce-from-lers-ros-thai-restaurant-san-francisco-neua-tod-and-jaew-%e0%b9%80%e0%b8%99%e0%b8%b7%e0%b9%89%e0%b8%ad%e0%b9%81%e0%b8%94%e0%b8%94%e0%b9%80.html