Taste of the Market: Thai Spicy Beef Salad

I had a blast at Taste of the Market Event today. It was a little windy, well, very windy, but the spirits were stronger and people really came out to participate.

I prepared Thai Spicy Beef Salad using red and green leaf lettuce and Swiss chards from Gundermann Farms. I never used Swiss chards in Thai salad before but I thought I would give it a shot, a good shot. When I tasted the chard by itself, I wasn't even sure if I could use it but this salad is tossed in lime juice based dressing, that should help cut the bitterness a little. A little honey in the dressing will also help. I mixed the chards with leaf lettuce, some pickling cucumbers, yellow onions and cilantro and threw in with pan seared, thinly sliced Sirloin Steak from Bastrop Cattle Company.I marinated the beef in soy sauce for only 10 minutes. You can also put the steak on the grill. You can use any steak. I like Sirloin both because of its price and texture. I have also use New York Strip and loved it. I put all the ingredients together and tossed in the dressing. The result was a long line in front of my booth. We served about over 150 samples. It was a successful event and it confirms that cooking seasonally is possible, in fact, it's the best way to go. I love those Swiss Chards in the salad, they added a real nice texture to my salad and they were pretty too.

dressing

4 red or green fresh Thai chillies, minced (about 2 tbsp)
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 tbsp Thai fish sauce
4 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp honey

meet me at the market

This coming Saturday at Austin Farmers' Market, Toyota Venza is sponsoring Taste of the Market promoting sustainable living, shop and eat local. I will be there participating and showing everyone how to make Thai Spicy Beef Salad. If you have one of those postcards from Venza, bring it to the market and Toyota will make additional donation to Sustainable Food Center.

Come hang out and taste some great food from local chefs featuring their favorite farmers. Thai Fresh is featuring Gundermann Farm. We will be using their organic winter mix lettuce together with beef from Bastrop Cattle Company.

The event goes on at the same time as the market from 9 am to 1 pm. Come early, get in line to taste some great food. I will be the first to do the demo right at 9.15.

sauce or no sauce

Definitely sauce. That's the way Thais eat. We put sauce on everything and anything. I took my parents who are visiting from Thailand to Mexican restaurants, to BBQ places or even to Chinese restaurants, they will bring some sort of spicy sauce with them there so they can pour it on everything. "No flavor", my dad said when we went to eat some Mexican food. BBQ sauce is not flavorful enough they have to pour their own spicy sauce on it.

Here are some common condiments that you will see everywhere in Thai restaurants, especially in Thailand. They are there so that you can spice up your food or adjust the dish to your preferred taste, be it spicier, more tart, saltier, or sweeter. Yes, there are actually sugar bowl on every table at restaurants in Thailand, not for your tea or coffee but for your noodle dishes. Not all Thai food are spicy nor all Thai people love spicy food. That is why the condiments are there. A lot of people assume that all Thai food is spicy and when they eat Thai food that is not spicy, it's not authentic.

In the picture, the two bottles on the left are soy sauce and Sriracha sauce. Sriracha is the name of chillies used to make the sauce and it is also the name of a town in Thailand. In the condiment ring, there are pickled chillies, just chillies and white vinegar, any spicy ones like Jalapenos or Serrano are fine. Then there are Thai chillies in fish sauce (yep, just chillies and fish sauce, sometimes though, we add a splash of lime juice in there too but it will not keep for very long), peanuts for noodles soup and Pad Thai and chili flakes which is made from roasted dried Thai chillies. The steps to make those chili flakes is in my Pad Thai post.

three flavored (and multi color) fish

Thai cooking is the art of balancing all the flavors. Those flavors are sweet, salty, spicy/hot, sour and bitter. At least there are three flavors present in Thai food if not all the five. Balancing flavors is a technique you learn as you cook and taste the food. There is a "leading" flavor or flavors. This dish is a great example of balancing the five flavors. You can use shrimp as well as other fish. I used red snapper from San Miguel Seafood. I can't stop writing recipes using his stuff, they are just of the best quality. We just love using his products. The previous post will tell you how to find Roberto. I love making it with whole fish but it can be a little challenging if you don't have that huge deep fat fryer at home. We have a medium size at home and I'm telling you, it worth every penny.

In the picture above, I also added pineapple chunks. If using, add pineapple in with the sauce to simmer.

Three Flavored Fish

1 tbsp oil
½ cup palm sugar
2-3 tbsp water
2 tbsp tamarind water
1 tbsp fish sauce
12 oz red snapper, cut into bit size or a small whole snapper
1 tbsp fish sauce or light soy sauce
Oil for deep frying
2 dried big chilies, deep fried
A handful of Thai basil leaves, deep fried

Paste
1 tsp chopped coriander stems
Pinch of salt
3 Serrano peppers, deseeded and chopped coarsely, red is better, if you can’t find red, green is fine. Or mix green peppers with other red ones that are no so spicy to get the red color.
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 red shallots, chopped

Make the paste either with food processor or pestle and mortar, adding the ingredient one by one until smooth. Fry the paste in a tablespoon of oil for a few minutes until fragrant. Season with palm sugar, then add 2-3 tablespoon of water and simmer until thick. Add tamarind water and fish sauce and continue to simmer for a few minutes. Check the seasoning: the sauce should be sweet, sour, hot and salty.

Marinate the fish in fish sauce or light soy sauce (I prefer light soy sauce) for about 10 minutes, then deep fry until crisp. To serve, coat the fish with the sauce, break up the chilies then sprinkle them and the basil over the fish.