Tiger Cries Salad

Description
A fabulous summer meal, marinade the meat and make the dressing the night before then throw dinner together FAST. Excellent for casual dinner parties and dieters. I've had this mouth-watering salad at a couple of different Thai restaurants, I was unable to find a recipe so I combined several to make my own. This salad is very spicy yet the bursts of freshness from the lime and mint make it a celebration for the taste buds. It's extremely addictive and very healthy, no oil!



Marinade

 * 1 lb beef flank steak or beef sirloin steak or tenderloin beef (good quality)
 * 2 teaspoons white pepper
 * 2 tablespoons fish sauce
 * 4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
 * 2 tablespoons palm sugar
 * 8 cloves garlic, minced

Dressing

 * 2 tablespoons sugar
 * 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
 * 3-4 tablespoons fish sauce (to taste)
 * 4-6 shallots, minced
 * 4-6 serrano peppers, chilis very finely minced or ground to paste
 * 2 stalks lemongrass, remove outer stalk and slice very thin or grind
 * 3 tablespoons toasted rice powder (ground fine)

Salad

 * 1 lb fresh tender salad greens (I use the bagged spring mix) or bibb lettuce
 * 1 large red onion, thinly slivered
 * 1 bunch scallions or green onions, cut to ½ inch
 * 1 cucumber, peeled & seeded cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes or wedges tomatoes
 * 1 lemon, cut in half lengthwise and very thinly sliced (toss into salad for garnish/flavor)
 * 1 cup fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped
 * sticky rice

Directions
Prepare a batch of thai sticky rice (aka thai sweet rice) to serve with this salad. Note: if you're in a hurry or on a budget, you can leave out the scallions, cuke, tomatoes,& lemon and this salad will retain it's signature flavor. Mix ingredients in a ziploc and let meat marinade from 2-24 hours in liquid. Char grill or broil meat to med rare, about 3-4 minutes per side. Let rest at least 10 minutes then slice VERY thin (1/4" or less) against the grain.
 * Marinade

Use very good quality meat for this dish, you want it to be fork-tender and melt-in-your-mouth!
Mix all dressing ingredients together 1+ hours before serving salad. (Be sure to taste and make any necessary adjustments…dressing should be SPICY, Sour, Salty and a just a wee bit Sweet in that order) You may want to make extra dressing to spoon over the sticky rice. Pour half of dressing over the red onions, lemon and cuke in a LARGE salad bowl and let them absorb the flavor, 15+ minutes. Add lettuce, tomatoes, scallions and MINT along with the rest of the dressing. Toss the salad until all ingredients are very well coated and mixed. Dish Salad onto plates and top with slices of cooked beef, make sure plenty of dressing is included in each serving. Add a serving of sticky rice to each plate. Very pretty to serve this salad on a bed of Purple Cabbage Leaves. Soak 1-2 pounds of Thai Sweet Rice in lukewarm water in a large bowl for 3 hours- drain& reserve water to use in steaming. Line bottom of bamboo steamer (the stackable sort used for veggies and such) with parchment paper (or cheesecloth sprayed with Pam). Fill steamer with soaked rice and cover. Pour rice soaking water into wok or dutch oven, add some fresh water until approx 3" depth. Place steamer over water in pan, bring water to boil then reduce to strong simmer - don't let water cook away. Steam rice for approx 25 minutes, let sit an additional 5 minutes with lid on. Toast raw sweet rice in a saute pan on top of stove just as you would sesame seeds - until very light golden brown. Use a coffee grinder, blender or food processor to grind to a fine consistency - I like mine fine as white sugar but any testure from cous cous, cornmeal, flour, etc is just fine. Adds an interesting, nutty and essential flavor to the dressing.
 * Dressing
 * Salad
 * Serving Suggestion
 * Perfect Sticky Rice
 * To Make Toasted Rice Powder