Beef Leaf (Thai Beef Salad - Yam Neau) - 5 stars!

tony claims that i've made this dish for him more than any other of my favorite recipes since we started dating a couple years ago. i'm sure it's because it's my favorite meal! :-)

the correct name for this recipe is Yam Neau, or thai beef salad. there are so many different ways you can make thai beef salad - i make mine using grilled top sirloin, sliced cucumber, shallots, jalapeno or thai chile, and garlic, fresh lime juice, fish sauce, fresh mint & cilantro, and a dash of palm sugar. i serve it with steamed jasmine rice and romaine or butter lettuce leaves. i put a bit of the jasmine rice in the center of the lettuce leaf, top it with the beef mixture, and i thoroughly enjoy every last bite of it!

one note about the recipe (i've included it below) - i always have a hard time putting the correct amount of sliced jalapeno or thai pepper in - and i tend to err on the side of too spicy, which is never good! the recipe calls for TEN THAI PEPPERS! i can tolerate an extremely high amount of spice - at the most, i think i used three whole jalapenos (or maybe it was serranos that time) for one batch of this, and it made me cry tears of pain. never, ever use that many peppers. i now resist the urge to put a lot of pepper in, and just start with a single jalapeno. it's normally plenty. :) if i'm feeling wimpy on a certain day, or sharing the dish with people outside of our household, i'll scrape the pith and seeds out of the inside of a pepper, since the pith contains the majority of the capsaicin (what gives peppers their heat).

Ingredients

• 1-lb decent quality steak, sirloin or other
• 10 (or more) 'prik kee noo' (fresh hot Thai chili peppers), slice crosswise very thin (or substitute jalapenos or serrano chilies, minced)
• 2 large cloves garlic, sliced crosswise very thin
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 5 tbsp fish sauce
• 5 tbsp fresh squeezed lime juice
  
• 1 head Bibb or Boston; or 1 heart of Romaine lettuce.
• 12 sprigs fresh mint (optional), remove the leaves and discard the stems
• 1/2 hot house cucumber or 1 small cucumber (seeds removed), peeled and sliced thin
• 2 to 3 shallots, sliced crosswise very thin or 1 small red onion, sliced very thin
• 3 or 4 sprigs cilantro, stems removed

Preparation

Grill or broil the steak until medium-rare. Trim off any fat. Cool and slice thin, into pieces approx. 2 inches across and 1/8 inch thick.

Mix garlic, chiles, fish sauce, lime juice, and sugar in a small bowl. Add the sliced meat and toss with the cucumbers and shallots. Taste and add more fish sauce if desired.

Make a bed of the lettuce on a serving plate. Place the beef on top. Garnish with cilantro. Serves 2 to 3 as an appetizer or as part of a meal.

(Courtesy of templeofthai.com)

Copyright © 1999 Temple of Thai

there's a silly story about the name of this dish - tony began calling it "beef leaf," because you wrap beef up in a leaf and eat it. we have a little kitty (below) named belili (pronounced beh-lee-lee). when tony said "beef leaf" loudly, belili came running over because "veef leaf" sounded similar enough to her real name, belili. poor little belili is now called beef leaf, or the lazy version - beefy - more often than not. :-)