Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Crying Tiger

I've been absent from the blog for the past two weeks.  Between pneumonia, a visit from my awesome mom, and the Mama Art Retreat, I've been busy and tired.  And then I've been feeling like I couldn't post unless I posted EVERYTHING.  Well, that's silly.  I'll catch you all up over the next week, but in the meantime, I'm just going to talk about dinner tonight.  Baby steps to getting caught up.  There will be no pictures, as I have misplaced the camera.

First, some background.  I'm from St. Paul, Minnesota, where my parents still live.  When we go to visit, my favorite restaurant is Supatra.  It's a small yet awesome Thai restaurant down on West 7th.  My favorite dish there is Crying Tiger.   This is basically the world's greatest marinaded beef over a yummy salad.

We order our meat from Wallace Farms, a local farm and company that raises grass fed, all-natural, happy animals.  This month, we decided to try out a specialty package that included several steak cuts that I'd never tried before.  I wanted to see if I could figure out something new.  It turns out, I did.

Things have been busy lately, and our food hasn't been all that delish, but tonight, the perfect storm occurred.  I had a defrosted steak and all the ingredients for my very own Crying Tiger.  I looked up a million different recipes, but ultimately created my own amalgam of what I found.  I have some fish allergies, so I stay away from fish sauce.  If you add fish sauce, I know it will only bring you joy.  And feel free to bump up the spice factor!

Crying Tiger

steak and marinade:
1 lb. steak or other yummy cut of beef
4 cloves garlic, smashed
2-3 TBS soy sauce or tamari
2 tsp. coriander
1 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. peppercorns
water to taste
1 TBS extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

dressing:
juice of 3 limes
1 TBS. garlic chili paste or Sambal Olek, or more to taste
1 TBS. soy sauce or fish sauce, or more to taste
1-2 scallions, chopped
sea salt to taste

salad of mixed greens, celery, and radish

Mix garlic, soy sauce, coriander, ginger and peppercorns in bowl or plastic bag.  Add water if marinade tastes too strong.  Add steak and marinade in fridge for 1 to 12 hours.

Mix lime juice, chili paste, soy or fish sauce, scallions, and sea salt.  Store in fridge while steak marinades.

Heat cast iron skillet with 1 TBS EVOO to medium high.  Cook steak to desired yumminess.  Most recipes recommend rare, but I'm a medium well kind of gal, so that's what I do.  Discard marinade.  Slice steak thinly and serve over salad with dressing.  (If you have a grill or grill pan, by all means, grill your steak!)

Most recipes include sugar in the marinade or dressing, but I don't like to add sugar where it isn't needed.  I don't feel it's needed here.  But if you want to, add some in.  Even better, add local honey.

My kid doesn't like salad, so we serve his meal with brown rice.

For the record, Supatra also has a cookbook.  I don't have it yet, so this is not their recipe.  Next time I'm home, though, I plan to buy the cookbook.

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