beef

Yum nua, spicy beef salad, is wonderful mix of warm juicy steak, light, crisp vegetables and sour spicy dressing. It is not dissimilar to laab in flavour or in the place it occupies in a meal, though it tends to be a more substantial dish due to the increased amount of vegetables involved.

I will start by saying in all my travels I have never eaten this dish in Thailand. I know it is well referenced in authentic Thai cookbooks and is well known outside of Thailand too, but beef is a much less available (and delectable) commodity in Thailand than other forms of meat so perhaps I've just blocked it out of consideration.

I make beef salad in a fairly lackadaisical manner, depending a lot on what I have on hand - and so long as the dressing has the characteristic sour, spicy and salty it always tastes good.

Of late I have also taken to making yum nua without the beef altogether and using kangaroo fillet instead. Roo is perfect in terms of texture and flavour and while as inauthentic as it could be, our Thai friends approve. Roo is also healthier to eat than beef, and better environmentally.

The method for making this dish is to toss and assemble everything together before serving, but I have on occasion served individual components for self assembly to allow for the smalls to skip the spicy salad and D to skip the cucumber. Taking a more pragmatic approach allows me to eat the food I really like more often without needing to prepare a second meal for those who don't like the heat, the meat or anything else - go for what works I say!

Yum nua (spicy beef salad)
Beef steak or kangaroo fillet - you will be eating this rare so buy a good cut, about 200gms per person for a main meal (less if it is part of a banquet). If you want to you can pre marinade the meat in a little soy sauce, garlic or similar.
Salad greens - mixed leaves or cos roughly chopped
Mint leaves - a few sprigs per serve, chopped
Coriander leaves - a small handful per serve, chopped
Cherry tomatoes - halved
Baby carrots - finely julienned or thin sliced
Lebanese cucumber - halved and sliced thinly on the diagonal
Red onion or red shallot - thinly sliced
Crispy fried shallots - a sprinkle over the top before serving
Toasted rice - a tablespoon or so (see here for an explanation of toasted rice)
Small red chillies, finely sliced - amount is optional. Can also use dried flakes if you don't have fresh on hand, or a combination of the 2 kinds of chili.
2-3 limes, juiced
3 tbs fish sauce
*some recipes also use mashed or finely chopped garlic and some palm sugar in the dressing, and add finely sliced spring onions to the salad

Grill, barbcue or fry the meat on a very high heat until well sealed but still rare, then rest in a warm place for 10 minutes or more. The resting and acidic juices in the dressing will diminish the rareness of the meat so be careful not to overcook!

While the meat rests toss all ingredients except chili, lime, fish sauce and shallots. Mix the lime juice, fish sauce and chili (starting with 2/3 of amount so you can top up afterwards) on a plate. Thinly slice warm beef or roo across the grain and place into dressing on plate.

Toss the meat into the other ingredients and mix well. Taste for flavour, add more fish sauce, lime juice and chili as required. Sprinkle with shallots and garnish with extra coriander leaves and mint sprigs.