Nuea phat phrik

Beef seared in two batches so the pan never drops, with the chillies as a vegetable.

Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef, fish sauce, oyster sauce.

Ingredients

• 500 g beef sirloin, in thin slices
• 6 long red chillies, in diagonal slices
• 4 long green chillies, in diagonal slices
• 1 onion, in wedges
• 6 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon palm sugar
• 4 tablespoons oil
• 1 teaspoon cornflour
• 3 tablespoons water

Method

1. SEAR IN TWO BATCHES, AND TAKE THE FIRST ONE OUT. Half a kilo of beef in one go drops the pan below searing temperature and the meat releases its juice and boils grey. Two batches, each 90 seconds, both lifted out and returned at the end.
2. LONG CHILLIES ARE A VEGETABLE HERE, not a seasoning. Ten of them, in diagonal slices, and they should still have crunch at the end. They are mild; this is not a fiercely hot dish despite how it looks.
3. Slice the beef thinly ACROSS the grain. Freezing it 20 minutes first makes that far easier.
4. Toss the beef with the cornflour. It holds the sauce and keeps a thin slice from drying in a very hot pan.
5. Mix the sauces, sugar and water in a bowl before lighting the pan.
6. Pan as hot as it goes. Half the oil, half the beef, spread out and LEFT 45 seconds before turning. 90 seconds total, then out. Repeat.
7. Rest of the oil, garlic 15 seconds, onion 1 minute.
8. Chillies in, 1 minute only.
9. Beef back in with any juice, sauce down the side of the pan, tossed 30 seconds.
10. Out of the pan immediately. Standing in a hot wok it keeps cooking and the beef tightens.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Thailand · All recipes