Recipe - Nue Gra Pao: Stir-Fried Beef With Mint

1 pound Flank steak
14 Serrano chilies
finely chopped
One fourth cup Finely chopped garlic
One half cup Finely chopped yellow onion
One fourth cup Vegetable oil; PLUS:
2 tablespoon Vegetable oil
3 tablespoon Fish sauce
1 tablespoon Granulated sugar
One half cup Water (more if needed)
One half cup Mint or basil leaves
(loosely packed)
Green lettuce leaves

This is a rich, hearty dish with plenty of typical Thai flavors. Any kind
of beef may be used, but flank steak works particularly well because it is
easy to cut it across the grain, which helps keep the meat from falling
apart during stirfrying and produces a tender result. Be sure to serve
plenty of rice, because it helps moderate the hot chilies without
detracting from the flavor. You may reduce the number of chilies by up to
one half, but traditionally this dish should have a rich, hot chili flavor.

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1. Slice the beef across the grain into strips One fourth inch thick and 2 to 3
inches long. Set aside.

2. Pound or grind the chilies, garlic, and onion to a coarse paste in a
mortar or blender. If you use a blender you may need to add the oil to aid
in grinding.

3. Heat a wok, add the oil, and swirl it over the surface of the pan. (Do
not add more oil if you have ground the chilies, onion, and garlic in oil.)
Add the paste from Step 2 and stirfry until it is light golden.

4. Add the beef and stirfry until it is a uniform tan color, but do not
overcook it.

5. Add the fish sauce, sugar, water, and mint (or basil) leaves. More
water may be added if the sauce is too dry. There should be about One half to
Three fourths cup sauce, depending on how much water you added.

Ahead of time note: The dish may be prepared a day in advance to this
point. To do so, proceed through Step 5, omitting the mint or basil
leaves. When you are ready to serve, heat the mixture and add the leaves.
If the meat has absorbed the liquid, add just enough warm water to bring it
back to the original consistency.

6. Arrange a single layer of lettuce leaves in a serving bowl and put the
beef mixture over them. Serve the beef immediately or keep it warm while
preparing other dishes.

7. Serve with rice.

(Serves 4 to 6)

Source: Thai HomeCooking from Kamolmal's Kitchen

From: melcue@is.rice.edu (Melissa Elaine Cue)
: nell@is.rice.edu (Paula Gaynell Warnes)

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini