Crying Tiger (Suer Roong Hai)

It's been extremely hot these past few days in Vancouver to the point where I only want to each cold/ raw dishes.  D and I have had our fair share of sushi and cold noodles (unfortunately, nothing worth noting, so no write ups).  I actually wanted to eat in after so many meals of eating out.  

I looked through the freezer and fridge to check out my ingredients; I had the makings for an awesome salad, but D's not much of a salad man.  So I then skimmed through a few cookbooks for inspiration and came across "Crying Tiger - Suer Roong Hai" in Lemongrass and Sweet Basil Traditional Thai Cuisine by Khamtane Signavong.  I've made it before, and it's pretty good, but I had other plans for it that night.

The following is an excerpt from the book about this dish:

This is a very special dish from Isan.  Legend has it that it owes its name to a time when the many tigers that roamed the thick forests there would come to the villages in search of food, especially cattle.  The first tiger would take the best part of the meat, then the second tiger would discover this and cry loudly because it had missed out.  Some people also say that the grilling meat makes a noise like a crying tiger - whichever version you favor, the dish is irresistible.

I decided to turn this steak dish into a salad wrap like I've had at Vietnamese restaurants back in Texas.  I wished I thought to take pictures before we started to eat because everything looked as good as it smelled and tasted.  It was very refreshing.  D actually ate the leftovers with rice the next day, and it was just as good.  I hope you'll try the recipe and enjoy it as much as D and I did. 

I tweaked the recipe a little bit to accommodate my available ingredients and time shortage.  The following is what I made that night:

1 pound flank steak

Marinade:

4 teaspoon soy sauce

2 teaspoon oyster sauce

1 finely diced Thai chili pepper or 1 teaspoon chili powder (can adjust for more or less heat)

1 teaspoon ground white pepper

3 teaspoon sugar

4 cloves finely chopped garlic

Wrap/ Salad Ingredients:

Lettuce leaves

Cucumber slices

Mushroom slices

Tomato slices

Pineapple pieces (can or fresh)

Cilantro

Onion

Fresh Garlic

Rice Paper (which I didn't have, but wished I did)

Sauce:

3 cloves finely chopped garlic

1 Thai chili pepper

2 tablespoons fish sauce

3 tablespoons fresh lime or lemon juice

2 teaspoons sugar

1. First marinade the steak at least 30 minutes.

2. To make the sauce, combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir until sugar has dissolved.  Taste to see if any adjustments are needed (some brands of fish sauce are very salty - may need to add more sugar and/ or a little bit of water).

3. Prepare all the veggies for the wraps/ salad.

4. Remove steak from marinade and place on heated grill or pan.  Cook until desired temperature.  I cooked mine for about 10 minutes on each side for a medium.  The steak will shrink, this is normal.

5. Let steak rest for a few minutes, then slice thinly against the grain and place on platter.

6. Serve over veggies with the sauce for a Thai/ Vietnamese style salad, or wrap in lettuce and/ or soften rice paper with desired veggies.

7. Enjoy and if eating it wrap style, have lots of napkins on hand.

Surf and Turf Dinner with a side of noodles?

This is the look our dog Chia gave me last night as I was preparing dinner.  She stuck to me like glue hoping I would accidentally drop just a tiny morsel of food for her to grab before I could pick it back up.  Ah, but unlucky for her I was making steak and salmon, and no way would I drop that on the floor.  (lol) 

It was a one pan dinner, so great in the cleaning department!  First I seasoned the steak, a sirloin, with salt and pepper.  I like to keep things simple.  I have seasoned it many ways in the past including with steak sauce, garlic salt, seasoned salt, mixture of soy and worchestershire sauces, oyster sauce, ... but salt and pepper is still my favorite.  I put a little bit of extra virgin olive oil in a heated pan and gently laid my steak in it.  I like my steaks rare to medium rare, so it only takes about 4-5 minutes of each side.  My cousin, Tony, taught me that if the steak feels similar to the cushy part of my palm under the thumb, then my meat is medium rare.  I love this tip because in the past I've always either over cooked or under cooked. 

For the sides, I usually make caramelized onions, garlic spinach, and mushrooms in butter and red wine sauce, but I wanted something different.  I was craving potatoes, but when I went to the market, I found these super fragrant tomatoes on vines.  I never noticed them before.  Size-wise they are between a roma and a cherry tomato.   I bought a few vines full and am so glad I did.  I had sliced them in half and cooked them in the pan around the steak during the last few minutes of cooking.  No seasoning, no oil needed, they just soaked up the steak juices.  They are SO sweet and tomato-y.  WOW!  I don't know if I would put them in soups or pasta dishes since they are almost like a fruit, but it was a pleasant surprise.

After I finished cooking the steak and tomatoes, I sliced a Yukon gold potato, seasoned with salt, pepper, thyme, and e.v.o.o. and threw them into the pan.  It was a bit laborious to cook in the pan, I could have fried them or stuck them in the oven, but I was going for less cleaning.  In the end it wasn't too bad.  It took maybe 10-15 minutes to cook all of it.  If I had thinner slices, it would have been done much faster.

So now onto the salmon.  Same as the steak, simple salt and pepper, but this time at the end of the cooking I hit it with a few squeezes of lemon juice to cut out any hints of fishy-ness.  And done!  So quick and easy... 

Oh, but D had other plans for me, he was feeling noodle soup for dinner.  I guess one pan clean up was too good to be true.  I started to protest, and he said he would make it, so I had to jump in.  His concoctions usually leaves a BIG mess and an even bigger tummy ache.  :-P  So I threw a pot of water onto the stove, pulled out any "leftover" veggies from past meals, and found some scallops, black forest ham, and pork dumplings.  Once the water boiled, I tossed a handful of Chinese noodles and the dumplings to cook for a few minutes, and then threw everything else in.  I seasoned it with a little salt, white and black pepper, and some chicken bullion.  Done!

Oh, but Chia looked so sad not having had anything to sweep off the floor.  Plus everything smelled so good.  In the end she didn't get any sirloin, but she did get a gourmet meal of turkey and veggies with gravy from Natural Choice dog food.  :-P