Name: Thai beef salad
Yield: for 4 as a one-dish lunch (allow 115-175 g / 4-6 oz of cooked beef per person)
Cuisine: Asia
Ingredients: a handful of coriander leaves, roughly chopped, plus more whole leaves to garnish; 675 g/1½ lb(or a little more) rump steak (in one or two pieces) or slices of roasted rib of beef; 1 tbsp sugar; 2 tbsp fish sauce (nam pla); coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper; 1 cucumber, peeled then cut into ribbons with a potato peeler; 1–2 Cos lettuce(s), the inner leaves only; Crisp-fried Shallots, to garnish; 3 tbsp fresh lime juice; 2–4 bird’s-eye chillies, deseeded and finely chopped; 3 tbsp warm water; 1 tsp finely chopped fresh galangal; 2 carrots, peeled then cut into ribbons with a potato peeler; a handful of mint leaves; some rocket or lamb’s lettuce leaves (optional); 1 tsp chopped lemon grass (soft inner part only)

Preparation info

for
4
as a one-dish lunch (allow 115-175 g 4-6 oz of cooked beef per person)

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

New Wave Asian

By Sri Owen

Published 2002

About

Of all the Southeast Asian cuisines, I find Thai comes up with the most delicious salads, or at any rate the salads that appeal most to Western tastes. The two that are probably best known, both in the East and in the West, are this beef salad (yam neua) and the squid salad (yam pla muek). For this, I share the preference of the Thais for beef that is not too pink, so my choice is rump steak, or slices of roasted fore rib.