Thai beef salad and coconut rice

Many people associate two dishes with Thai food: pad see ew and pad thai and I don't blame them. I was one of those people for a while until I finally decided to go outside my comfort zone and try other dishes. If you haven't already, I strongly encourage you to do so! The crab fried rice, tom yum gai soup, basil chicken, banana egg rolls are just a few of many superb dishes. Today I'm doing a Thai beef salad to add on to the list.

Thai Beef Salad

Recipe from Cooking Light

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1/2 cup fresh lime juice

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp Thai fish sauce

2 tbsp chile paste with garlic

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 (1 1/2 lb) flank steak, trimmed

Cooking spray

1 1/2 cup vertically sliced red onion

4 plum tomatoes, each cut into 6 wedges

6 cups torn romaine 

1 1/4 cups thinly sliced English cucumber

2 tbsp chopped fresh mint

Directions

1. Prepare grill or broiler.
2. Combine first 6 ingredients, stirring until sugar dissolves; set half of the lime mixture aside. Combine other half of lime mixture and steak in a large zip-top plastic bag; seal. Marinate in refrigerator 10 minutes, turning once. Remove steak from bag; discard marinade.
3. Place steak on a grill rack or broiler pan coated with cooking spray; cook 6 minutes on each side of until desired of doneness. Let stand 5 minutes. Cut steak diagonally across grain into thin slices.
4. Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion, saute 3 minutes. Add tomatoes; saute 2 minutes. Place onion mixture, lettuce, cucumber, mint in a large bowl; toss gently to combine. Divide salad evenly among 6 plates. Top each serving with 3 ounces steak; drizzle each serving with 1 tbsp reserved lime mixture.

Nutritional Analysis:
per serving: 219 calories, 8.6g fat (3.6g saturated, 0.5g polyunsaturated, 3.3g monounsaturated), 12.3g carbohydrates, 2.2g fiber, 24.1g protein

Coconut rice

Recipe from Cooking Light

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1/2 cup water

1/4 tsp salt

1 (14-oz) can light coconut milk

1 cup jasmine rice

Directions

1. Bring the water, salt, coconut milk to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Add the rice and simmer 20 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed.

Nutritional Analysis:
per serving: 271.5 calories, 16g fat (14g saturated, 0.2g polyunsaturated, 0.7g monounsaturated), 30g carbohydrates, 2.4g fiber, 3.7g protein

**Helpful tips and common mistakes

Looking at this recipe, I had to make small changes in order to accommodate the people I serve. First off, I chose to use sambal for the chili paste (even though it doesn't have garlic) and omitted the raw garlic from the marinade. People here are not big fans of garlic breath. I seasoned the flap meat with salt and pepper and rubbed the garlic on both sides. I than poured the marinade and let it sit for 10 minutes. Do not marinade overnight or longer than 10 minutes because the acidity in the lime juice will "cook" the meat, just like how lime juice "cooks" the seafood in ceviche.

If you have a grill I would encourage you to utilize it for this meat. By grilling, the flap meat would get a nice char while still maintaining the flavors of the marinade. I chose to roast the meat in the marinade until desired degree of doneness. 

Meanwhile, prepare the other vegetables. I seasoned the tomatoes and sliced red onion when sauteing. This actually reminds me of another dish I made, lomo saltado. Even with just salt and pepper, the tomatoes are so full of flavor; I could just eat this as is!

I also added shredded carrots and pan-fried tofu to this salad.

After tasting the other half of the lime mixture meant for the dressing, I added more sugar to balance out the tartness. 

Just as another filler, coconut rice was served on the side. The sweet smell of coconut really makes this rice even more appetizing than it already is.

I cooked the coconut rice in a rice cooker, so everything was added in the same pot at once. I also washed the rice before hand (as you always should!). Don't omit the water because the coconut milk is thick and needs to be thinned out in order for the rice to cook properly. 

Yum yum yum! The meat had so much flavor, it's like a party in your mouth. You only need a drizzle of the dressing on the vegetables because it is quite strong. The carrots added a nice crunch in addition to the cucumbers while the tofu added extra protein. I was pleasantly pleased with the outcome of this dish, and only at 219 calories per serving!