Posts Tagged ‘thai’

My Southeast Asian Summer: Beef salad

june 2009 011
The hotter it gets, the more interested I am in the piquant and flavorful foods of southeast Asia. Recently I picked the last of my lettuce, and an Asian-inspired meat salad seemed like an obvious choice for a summer dinner on the patio. It’s hard to give an exact nationality for this salad, since I’m obsessed with Thai and Vietnamese food and this has some elements of each.
First, grow your lettuce and herbs. I plant a little lettuce every two weeks throughout the spring, and make sure that the last few plantings are in light shade. I haven’t yet been able to pick any lettuce in July or August, but it always does well through early June. This year I did best with romaines, including a beautiful maroon one called “Marshall” which I got from Territorial Seeds. It’s disease-resistant and was the last lettuce in my garden to bolt. Of course, you can buy the lettuce if you need to. For the herbs, you need a few sprigs each of cilantro, Thai basil, lemon basil, and rau ram. If you don’t grow herbs yourself, you may be limited to Thai basil and cilantro, but the salad will still be very good.
Next, catch your beef. I’m a firm believer in grass-fed beef. It may be better for us, and beyond question it’s better for the cows. For more discussion of grass-fed and sustainable meats and more sourcesd, see my website. I buy big sirloin steaks from our local Fishhuggers at the Corrales Farmers Market on Sunday morning. A single steak will always provide the two of us with three meals, often four, and sometimes five. Grill it plainly for the first meal, and you can take it in a lot of directions after that. It has a wonderful beefy flavor, and you don’t need much to have a flavor impact, so cold grass-fed steak in your refrigerator is a meal waiting to happen.
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salmon with a Thai touch

salmon
Here in Albuquerque we don’t have local fish, but we do have a local couple, the Fishhuggers, who sell Alaskan salmon and other fish, sustainably fished in Alaska by the Fishhugger himself. It’s frozen shortly after being caught, and when thawed and promptly cooked, is a lot closer to fresh than anything we can buy in the stores. You can find it at the Corralles farmers’ market. I keep frozen blanched greens in my freezer in one-cup portions, ready when I need a winter pick-me-up.
When I cook salmon I usually use their wild-caught sockeye, which is a brilliant red-orange tone and loaded with omega-3s. I like to use other brilliant colors, usually bright greens, to complement the lovely fish. Today I combined the salmon with Thai accompaniments, and the green coconut-milk curry set off the plainly pan-grilled fish beautifully. Whenever you eat fish, remember to support sustainable fishing! The Seafood Watch card is a handy way to decide what to buy. Click here to print one out.

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