Crying Tiger Beef

"The second item I prepared was classic Thai street food: Crying Tiger Beef. But instead of cooking a whole piece of marinated skirt steak (the traditional method), I bias-sliced a partially frozen steak and marinated the sliced beef. When the block was screaming hot, I quickly seared the steak strips to medium-rare, about two to three minutes per side. (The longer food stays on the block and the higher the food’s moisture content the more salt it will pick up from the block.) To accompany the steak, I grilled marinated asparagus on the salt block until crisp-tender and served it with Jasmine rice."

Read the entire article on salt block cooking by Mike Stines here.

Ingredients

1 pound Top Round beef steak

Marinade:

3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon less sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Thai Birdseye chiles (prik ki nu), seeds removed and finely minced
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Partially freeze the steak. Bias-slice the steak across the grain into 1/4-inch thick strips.

Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a small bowl. Add the steak strips and marinate, refrigerated and covered, for two to four hours. Remove the steak from the marinade and drain well. Discard the marinade.

Prepare the salt block for high heat cooking. Sear the steak strips for about two minutes or until done as you like.