Thursday, August 20, 2009

Ellie: Grilled Thai Beef Salad


My friend Jen from Jen B's Cooking Carveout chose this week's CEiMB recipe, Grilled Thai Beef Salad. Jen has the office two doors down from me, and we joined CEiMB around the same time. Therefore, our turns to pick recipes come around the same time. I pick the week after Jen, and this Thai Beef salad had been on my short list. I was thrilled when I saw that Jen picked it, because I was able to knock one recipe off my list, which turned an excruciating decision into merely painful one.

I think the Thai Beef Salad appealed to me because I love Thai food, but rarely cook it at home. I guess I tend to skip over Thai recipes because the ingredients (things like red curry paste, green chile sauce, fish sauce) always seem exotic to me, although they can't be all that exotic, because they carry them in Publix.

In any case, I was so glad that Jen picked this, because it forced me to stare down the "international" aisle shelf at Publix and gather the ingredients I needed to make an authentic(ish) Thai dish at home.

The base of the salad is simple: red leaf lettuce, basil, cilantro, and shallots. But it is the dressing/marinade that makes this salad shine. A combination of lime juice, soy sauce, oil, brown sugar, garlic, ginger and red curry paste makes up both the marinade for the flank steak and the dressing for the salad. It came together really quickly and was so delicious. Hubs and I had it for dinner on Sunday night. I served hubs a scoop of rice with his to make it more of a manly-man meal. We both thought it was fabulous. We used the leftover beef in a stir fry tonight. This one is officially in the rotation. Thanks for the great pick, Jen!

20 comments:

Leslie said...

It looks so delicious with the beef! We had this for dinner tonight (but I subbed portobello mushrooms) and it was decreed a keeper.

Unknown said...

Oh yum, Cathy, that looks awesome. I love salad with beef. Can you believe I've never had Thai food in my entire life? I really need to get out more...

Kayte said...

Looks great. Red leaf lettuce? Oops, for some reason, I looked at the photo in the book and thought "something a step up from iceberg" and got spring mix without consulting the book recipe. My purple lettuce all looks black in the photo, so that will teach me. That dressing was so good! For some reason, I thought it would be spicier, but it wasn't particularly...just a very nice mix of flavors. We will have this again also.

NKP said...

I love Thai flavours, this looks great!

Mary Ann said...

I didn't make this one, but it really looks good! I love making Thai food at home and can't wait to try the sate for next week. That has been on my list!

Jennifer said...

Your salad looks great Cathy! Thanks for cooking with me this week and I am glad I was able to make your decision-making process re: the recipe for next week a little bit easier!
I liked this and will definitely be making it again.

Anonymous said...

It was a great tasting salad, wasn't it? We loved it. Ted made his meal more "manly" by adding a whole wheat bun.

Anonymous said...

I love Thai flavorings and the dressing sounds wonderful. I'll have to try this.

(although recently, they've disbanded the international aisle at the grocery store and placed ingredients all over the place. Makes it more difficult to find.)

Sara said...

This really was very tasty. How nice of you to man up the hub's meal with some rice, Nick was gonna get lettuce and he was gonna like it!

Maria Salomon said...

Thai intimidates me too but like you say, the indredients can be found almost anywhere.....and then I make it and love it and say "Oh how easy?"

Nancy/n.o.e said...

Very cool that you ended up loving this dish after your expedition into the uncharted territory of the international shelf; now that you have the ingredients on hand it will be much easier next time! Looks fantastic.

La Bella Cooks said...

This is one of my favorites that I tend to make often. Love the flavors!

The Blonde Duck said...

I love a salad with beef. :)

I love anything with beef.

Di said...

That looks delicious! I've been looking for some new meal ideas, and I bet Jamie would love this one.

Jamie said...

YUm...this looks fabulous! I am not a big beef eater, but this I could handle! :)

Deb in Hawaii said...

I love cooking and eating Thai food and this looks both simple and delicious--a great meal for summer.

Katherine Roberts Aucoin said...

This is one of my favroties. You did a great job!

Pamela said...

Well, I'm extremely late in my comments lately. I made this dish, but never posted on the blog about it. Actually, I made the steak and skipped the salad, but I loved the flavors. Definitely a new fave here, too.

Maria said...

Great salad! Perfect for summer!

atkins diat said...

Hi...
Thank you for sharing such a nice recipe. I would love this item. I am giving a party to my friends this weekend at my farmhouse. I was wondering about some new item to treat my friends with. I will surely try this and let you know.

 
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