Anatomy of an Ugly Salad – Thai Beef Salad – Yum Neua

Once in a while, you find there’s little you can do to save a plate of food from being ugly. You composed it with pretty things: bright green butter lettuce, blushing watermelon radish, slivers of red chili, a beautiful piece of skirt steak–sometimes I can hardly think of anything prettier than a perfectly grilled steak. You dressed it up in a gorgeous Celadon plate.

You tried pretty much anything but the upskirt shot and the pictures still came out looking positively ugly. The homeliness of this plate of salad was rather confounding, especially considering how delightfully delicious it was, as evident by the five minutes flat it took for you know who to polish off his first serving.

Despite it all, this ugly salad is something I do quite often when I want something quick and light for supper. It’s a vaguely Thai salad, with a dressing made with lime juice, fish sauce, chili powder, sliced shallots, mint, and cilantro, with an added (and indispensable) nuttiness from roasted rice ground into powder. In Thailand, the grilled beef “salad” is a mostly protein affair, with grilled beef slices tossed with the super spicy dressing and served with fresh vegetables and steamed sticky rice on the side as a respite from bites of the spicy Thai Beef salad.

The way I do it these days, I make a little extra dressing and toss everything together. I also tone down the heat a bit. Using so much chili powder was something of a necessity in the poor region of Isan (where this dish came from) in the days of not-so-fresh meat, no refrigeration, and tropical heat–that chili peppers are beneficial to our health was folk knowledge well before science confirmed it.

With the luxury of better quality meat and ready storage, I don’t feel such a need for rampant heat which can interfere with the flavors of the other components in the dish. Should you feel the need to preserve the so-called “authenticity”, and have the stomach of steel to handle it, please feel free to use as much chili as you want.

Thai beef salad – Yum Neua

This Thai Beef Salad serves 2 as the main course or 4 as a part of a bigger meal.

Ingredients:

Directions:

To make the dressing, start with the lime juice and sugar. Add the fish sauce, starting with a tablespoon, and then a bit more at a time, until you get the balance of sour and salty you want. Fish sauce can be really strong, especially if the bottle has been hanging out in your cupboard for a long time.

I suggest you stop when the pungency from the fish sauce is as strong as you can bear. If you still need to add a bit more saltiness, just add regular salt until you get the balance you want. Add as much chili powder as you want, then toss the dressing with the sliced shallots and the roast rice powder. Set aside while you make the rest of the Thai beef salad.

Cut the long piece of skirt steak into 4 pieces. Set a grill pan on the stove over high heat. While the pan is heating up, salt and pepper the steaks. Grill the steak over high heat until medium-rare, just a few minutes on each side. When the meat is done set aside to rest for a few minutes while you make the salad.

Discard the outer leaves of the butter lettuce, then wash, dry, and tear the lettuce into small pieces. Peel and slice the watermelon radish into thin rounds. Peel, seed, and cut the cucumber into sticks. Chop the mint and cilantro. Toss these ingredients together in a large salad bowl. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and toss well–your hands are best here, trust me.

Slice the steaks into small bite-size pieces. Toss them–nonchalantly–on top of the salad. Be sure to pour the juice that comes out while cutting the meat back into the salad. Why waste all that flavor?

I serve this with a bit of sticky rice on the side. If you want to keep the meal relatively carb-free you don’t need to.

*You can make your own ground rice powder. It’s super easy, just dry toast a handful of uncooked rice grains in a dry pan until they turn brown and toasty. Let cool for a bit then ground in a food processor or a mortar and pestle. The leftover rice powder will keep for just about forever.

In conclusion, sometimes, despite your best efforts, a plate of food can turn out less than visually appealing. In the case of this Thai beef salad, it was composed of beautiful elements, from vibrant lettuce and watermelon radish to succulent skirt steak, all plated on an exquisite Celadon dish. However, no matter the angles or lighting, the pictures still failed to capture its true charm. Nevertheless, the taste of this salad is nothing short of delightful, as proven by how quickly it vanished from the plate.