Thai Steak Salad

One of the great passages in life is when your kids are growing up and you become friends with the parents of your kids’ best friends.  So it is in our lives right now.  For the past several years, we have developed a solid friendship among three families that altogether have six boys. Collectively and separately, we have squired these kids through swimming, tubing, rock climbing, paint ball wars, skiing, and hours and hours of play in our yards and in our driveways’ basketball hoops.  The kids have become fairly inseparable—and so in the process of organizing their social lives, we parents have joined in—and one of our favorite activities is a monthly “country” dinner. Note:  our kids are no slouches when it comes to eating well—they all love exotic food of any stripe—they are fun to eat with.

Each family contributes dishes—whatever we want to make—and the host family coordinates so that we don’t end up with only six appetizers or six desserts. This past weekend, we cooked Thai food—and today’s recipe is the Thai Steak Salad that my family contributed.  It’s a hybrid recipe inspired by something I saw Bobby Flay do, with elements of the Thai steak salad that my neighborhood Thai restaurant serves.   This is a good recipe to make for a party—you can wash the greens, chop the salad, make the dressing, marinate and grill the beef—and at the last minute, put it all together really easily.

Thai Steak Salad

Serves 4

Ingredients for Steak

3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon garlic chili paste
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 tablespoon peanut oil
2 filets mignons

Preparation for Steak

Whisk together the soy sauce, lime juice, chili paste, ginger and peanut oil.  Put the steaks in a small glass dish, and pour the marinade over.

Refrigerate and marinate for 1 to 3 hours, turning occasionally.  Remove the steaks from the marinade, pat dry, sprinkle with pepper on both sides and grill or broil on high for 4 to 6 minutes per side or until medium rare. (If making ahead, wrap the steaks tightly in foil and let rest in a warm place in the kitchen until ready to serve, otherwise, let rest for 10 minutes.) Slice thinly and arrange on the salad.

Ingredients for Dressing

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons peanut oil

Ingredients for Salad

1 head butter lettuce, washed and in bite-sized pieces

2 cups arugula, well-rinsed and in bite-size pieces
1 cucumber, peeled, seeds removed and sliced
2 carrots, julienned
1 small yellow or red onion, sliced
½ cup cilantro sprigs

Combine all of the salad ingredients.  Toss the salad with 6 tablespoons of the dressing.  Arrange the salad on plates or a platter and top with the steak.  Spoon an additional tablespoon of the dressing over each serving of the steak or serve the remaining dressing separately.