Waterfall Beef Salad

How to make Beef Salad, from SBS Food Safari show. Recipe by Chef Khamtane Signavong, Arun Thai Restaurant in Sydney, Australia.

In North Eastern Thailand beef is traditionally cooked over charcoal and it is the juices running off it that give this dish its name, which literally means “waterfall beef”. The tender beef strips are spiked with spicy, pungent flavours and served with a cooling salad of cucumber, lettuce, mint and a little fresh chilli. The Thai way to eat this is with your hands, gathering up all the ingredients so you have a taste of everything in each bite.

Ingredients

300g piece sirloin or rump steak
3 tbsp fish sauce
3½ tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tsp palm sugar
1 tbsp finely chopped coriander
2 spring onions, finely sliced
2 shallots, finely sliced
Handful of mint leaves
2 tsp toasted ground rice
½ tsp chilli powder

Directions

1. Barbecue or grill the steak, ideally to medium-rare on a heavy based pan with no oil, and slice carefully into thin strips.
2. Mix the fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar together in a bowl until the sugar has dissolved then add the beef strips. Add the coriander, spring onions, shallots, mint leaves, ground rice and chilli powder and mix well.

To serve, assemble the salad on a plate and serve with the sliced beef.

Tip: To make toasted ground rice put 1/3 cup of jasmine rice and 2 kaffir lime leaves and a stalk of lemongrass into a large flat pan and toast over high heat until the rice turns golden brown, keeping the ingredients moving constantly to stop burning.