LouieNep Food

This is one of those dishes whose recipe doesn’t do it justice- simply because its cooking aroma is so heady, so unbelievably mouthwatering, it cannot be described in words. Great for leftover steak or beef roast. And, since we’ve been on a “thai spree”, nice and spicy too.

Thai Chilli Beef
INGREDIENTS:
1 lb lean beef steak, cut into very thin strips
1 tbsp Chinese rice wine
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsps sesame oil
2 tsps cornstarch
4 red chillies, seeds removed
7 garlic cloves, peeled
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced thin
1 tsp Thai red curry paste
6 tbsps peanut oil
2 red peppers, seeds removed and sliced thick
2 celery stalks, trimmed and sliced
2 tbsps Thai fish sauce
shredded basil leaves

1. Place the beef in a bowl with rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil and cornstarch and mix well. Cover with clingfilm and leave to marinate - refrigerated- for 20 minutes, turning beef over at least once.

2. Place chillies, garlic, onion and red curry paste in a food processor and blend to form a smooth paste. I like to do this in my mortar.

3. Drain the beef, shaking off any excess marinade. Heat a wok and add 3 tbsps of the peanut oil. When nearly smoking, add beef and stir-fry for about a minute. Remove the beef and set aside.

4. Wipe wok clean. Reheat, and add remaining peanut oil. When hot, add chilli paste and stirfry for 30 secs. Add peperrs, celery, fish sauce and more soy sauce. Stirfry for 2 minutes. Return beef to the wok and stirfry for a further 2 minutes, or until beef is cooked. Serve with shredded basil sprinkled on top.

As I said, this smells absolutely heavenly. Feel free to lessen or increase the amount of chillis depending on how hot or mild you like your food. Delicious served with fragrant jasmine rice, or a bed of freshly cooked glass noodles.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 18th, 2004 at 4:45 pm and is filed under Quick Exoticism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.