Recipe: Thai Beef Salad

One of our favorite dishes from the Thai cooking class we took was Thai Beef Salad. Yes, a salad made from beef. I think it would be delicious at a summer barbecue. (Ah, how we miss those!) You should be able to find most of the ingredients back in the States, but I think you could get the same effect with some substitutions. This recipe comes from the Classic Home Cooking recipe book, which they gave to each of us after we finished the class. If I haven't said this enough, I very highly recommend them.

Thai Beef Salad (Yam Nua)

Ingredients:
- 100 grams of beef (That's about 3.5 ounces. If you're cooking for a group, you might want to quadruple everything. It's that good.)
- 1 tablespoon of finely sliced shallots
- 1 tablespoon of thinly sliced lemon grass stems. (Don't eat these unless they're sliced very very thinly. They're not poisonous or anything, just a bit too fibrous and flavorful to eat on their own.)
- 1 tablespoon spring onion, chopped
- 1 tablespoon mint leaves
- 1 tablespoon sliced cucumber (I'd use a bit more if you want to make this a bit more 'salad' and a bit less 'beef.')
- 1/2 tomato, sliced

Ingredients for dressing:
- 1 tablespoon crushed garlic
- 2-4 crushed hot chilies. (If you're using the original recipe amounts, I'd recommend no more than 2 peppers, unless you like things with lots of heat. To crush the chilies, use the flat part of your knife to sort of roll the pepper open.)
- 3 teaspoons of lime juice (Adjust to taste. I like it extra-limey.)
- 3 teaspoons fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon palm sugar

Method:

1. Grill beef and then cut into thin strips about 1 inch wide. (I recommend grilling to somewhere between rare and medium rare.)
2. Mix all dressing ingredients in a big bowl. Add the beef and other ingredients.
3. Sprinkle mint leaves on top. Serve with lettuce, cabbage, or whatever else you have on hand.

Happy eating, Thai-style!

-R

A Thai Cooking Class in Chiang Mai

Tom and I both really love Thai food, but since we eat it so rarely at home, we usually stick to our favorites like green curry and pad thai. We were really excited to get to Thailand and eat our way through dozens of menus (and we definitely did!), but we also wanted to spend a bit of time learning about the food and how to prepare it so that we could make some edible souvenirs when we get home. 

We decided to take a Thai cooking class while we were in Chiang Mai, in the north of Thailand. It seems like everyone and their mother runs a cooking class in Chiang Mai, so we read some reviews and decided to go with Vanee and Meo from "Classic Home Cooking," based on a review which said that it was like cooking with your grandmother. I am so so glad we did a class with them. The food we made was incredibly delicious, and they were wonderful hosts to us. Since it was the off season, we were the only two students in the class and so we got tons of attention.

Food on the Road: Tom's Empanadas

I think it's fair to say that we've eaten approximately 20 pounds of empanadas since we've been in South America. Chicken, beef, sausage-- we've eaten them all. So when Tom suggested that we make our own empanadas to take with us on a big hike, I looked at him like he was crazy. Empanadas are about a buck apiece; we could buy a dozen of them without spending much money or too much time in the kitchen.

Homemade empanadas! Mmm.

Of course, Tom made me eat my words. Unlike the empanadas we've been eating in Chile and Argentina, his were full of healthier proteins like beans and eggs. His empanadas were hearty without being oily. Plus, they made use of our leftovers!

Tom's Empanadas

   Ingredients:

   12 empanada "shells"
   Olive oil

   For Bean Filling

   3 cloves garlic, minced
   1 onion (small), chopped
   1 tablespoon of cumin (or, to taste)
   Black beans (about half a bag)
   1 small butternut squash, cubed
   1 small potato, cubed
   2 carrots, chopped
   1 bullion cub

Food on the Road: Black Bean Soup

We've only been traveling for a few weeks, but we've already learned that food on the road is a bit of a balancing act. It's much easier to eat meals out at a restaurant, and it's a neat way to get a feel for a culture and it's cuisine. But it's also expensive, and not the healthiest way to live!

To keep our costs (and health) in control, we're trying to cook a few meals each week. Thankfully, most hostels have kitchens available for guests to use. Often they're not the fanciest of kitchens (they often lack any kind of sophisticated cooking tools like, say, ovens or blenders), but they usually have the basic tools we need to make a meal for ourselves.

We're trying to make the most of our "hostel-cooked" meals. Ideally, our meals will be:

1. Filling. Tom gets cranky when he's hungry.

2. Relatively healthy. Right now we're in the land of (amazing) beef and red wine, so ideally these meals will give usa dose or two of veggies.

3. Inexpensive.
4. Simple and pretty quick to make. We don't want to spend our whole trip sitting in a kitchen!

We'd also like to make use of leftovers, so that we don't waste food and we don't have to lug ingredients around the world!

So, with that overly-thorough introduction, here's our first recipe:

   Black Bean Soup

  

Black bean soup. Served with wine.

   Ingredients:

   4 cloves garlic, minced
   1 onion (small), chopped
   1/2 red pepper, chopped
   1/2 green pepper, chopped
   1 carrot, chopped
   2 tablespoons of cumin (or, to taste)
   2 tablespoons of olive oil
   Small chunk of beef
   Black beans (about half a bag)
   Diced tomatos (half a can)
   2 bullion cubes

   For garnish:

   1 avocado
   Bunch of greens (I think we used arugula)
   Sour cream or yogurt (we used Doble Crema, and we're still  not sure what it is!)

   Directions:

   Step 1 - Soak the beans for a long time (we soaked them for about 24 hours.) Then, boil the beans in a pot of water with the two bullion cubes (we used enough water to cover the beans, plus another inch or so.)

   Step 2 - While the beans are boiling, chop up all of the vegetables. Saute them in a small pot with olive oil and a bit of cumin.

   Step 3 - Cut up the beef into bite-sized pieces, then brown them in a small pan.

   Step 4 - Once the beans are soft enough to eat, add in the vegetables, beef and tomatoes. Simmer 5-10 minutes, then serve. Add garnish to taste. 

This meal was a perfect conclusion to a long day of hiking in sprinkling rain. The hike was gorgeous, but the cool, damp air left us craving a warm fire and a big bowl of stew. This definitely fit the bill. And, it hit all of our four requirements.

Tom, chowing down.

We'll definitely make some version of this stew again. It's pretty inexpensive and easy to make. It doesn't need any fancy equipment-- the only thing it needs is time. 

Share some recipes with us in the comments! And if you have any ideas on how to make this recipe tastier, cheaper or easier, please let us know!

-R