Yam Nua -- Beef Salad UPDATE

A lot of times, we'll try a recipe and not be completely satisfied with it. Such is the case with our previous beef salad recipe. While it's pretty good, I was never really satisfied with it. It just seemed to be too...something. I think it was too sour for my tastes, although Janda likes sour things, so she really liked it.

After a brief search on the internet, I had some new ideas to try. Armed with pen and paper, I started out making lunch with the intentions of making a new sauce for this beef salad. Here's what I've come up with.

Beef Salad
1/3 C fish sauce
1/4 C soy sauce
1/4 C lemon juice
1/4 C Rice vinegar
1 t basil
1/2 t mint
1/3 C water
1/2 t ground dried hot chilies
1/8 t ground ginger

2 lbs beef skirt steak

I started marinating the skirt steak in Red Creek marinade. I try to do this at room temperature, and let it go for about 30 minutes. While it was marinating, I mixed the sauce ingredients above in a large skillet, whisking to combine. I started heating the sauce on low heat, just to get it warm, mixing occasionally.

I broil my skirt steak on HI, five minutes per side. In our oven, I put the steak on a cast iron griddle, with the oven rack as close to the top of the oven as possible. Just five minutes per side will get the steak up to about a medium-rare, depending on how thick your steak is. Don't worry about getting it too done, we'll finish it off later.

When the steak is finished broiling, take it from the oven and slice into bite sized pieces. Normally, I split the steak lengthwise, then cut into half-inch strips. Place the sliced steak into the skillet with the sauce mixture, and bring up to a simmer. This can cook for a while, let it continue to warm as you assemble the salad.

As with our previous recipe, take regular rice and salad -- including cucumber, tomato, onion, or whatever else you'd like.

I really liked this recipe a lot more than our other one. It wasn't too sour, and the spice was a bit more than the previous method. Something else I should mention -- a lot of these ingredients, especially the fish sauce and soy sauce, differ in intensity between brands, but also between bottles of the same brand. It isn't like sugar where one tablespoon always has the same sweetness as another brand. What I do is start here, and adjust accordingly. My fish sauce is pretty strong, so I had to add the water to tone it down a bit. It just takes some tasting to get an idea of how much of each ingredient will make your recipe shine. That's part of the fun of cooking, I think. Don't you think?

Overall Rating: 86 (scale of 100)
Price $1.00 per serving