Nam Tok Neua
Recently, it was my daughter’s birthday and my husband ordered a fantastic cut of beef from the Scottish butchers ‘Macdonald & son’ from Dundee. Our 7kg sirloin on the bone steak travelled quickly from Scotland to South East England and was grilling on the BBQ the next day! As you can imagine, we had some leftover meat from lunch which made it perfect to use for a quick and easy Thai meat salad… Nam Tok!
This is an incredibly delicious Thai salad, the more common salads you may know might be Som Tam and Larb, but Nam Tok takes centre stage for me! Nam Tok means ‘waterfall’ in Thai and the name came from the action of the juice/blood dripping from the beef while it’s grilling. So this meat salad has a wetter sauce compared to its sister salad, Larb.
Traditionally, Nam Tok is made with beef (Neua), so in Thai, it is called ‘Nam Tok Neua’. This dish is prepared by adding thinly sliced shallots, lime juice, fresh mint leaves, coriander leaves, roasted chilli powder and roasted ground sticky rice (Khao Khua) to grilled meat which is sliced into bite-sized pieces. The result is a juicy salad with spice and tangy which is quite the hit in our household!
We were so impressed with the steak we bought from Macdonald’s & Son, they are definitely a butcher worth taking a look at, here is a link to their website! Over on our blog, we have written a more in-depth post about ‘Nam Tok: Thai Meat Salad’, with alternative cuts you can cook with for this dish!
Please note that in the recipe below, some of the quantities are to taste such as 1 - 2 tbsp of chilli powder - if you are going for the milder taste, stick to the lower quantities for the correct seasoning balance. We recommend you cook the steak rare to medium-rare, as the lime, sugar and fish sauce help cure the meat further.
If you enjoyed our Nam Tok Neua recipe, please give this recipe a star rating and comment if you loved the flavours of this meat salad! Check out our recipe page for more delicious dishes like this and subscribe for new recipes and posts. Always stay connected and follow us on Instagram and Facebook!
Nam Tok Neua
Ingredients
- 500 g Beef Steak
- 200 g Shallots
- 70 g Sticky Rice Glutinous rice
- 90 g Fresh Mint Leaves
- 40 g Fresh Coriander Leaves
- 1-2 Large Lime To Taste
- 1-2 tbsp Roasted Chilli Powder To Taste
- 2-3 tbsp Sugar To Taste
- 3-5 tbsp Fish Sauce To Taste
- 50 ml Hot Water
Instructions
Preparation
- Gently pan-roast sticky rice until golden brown and then ground to a powder
- Peel and thinly slice shallots
Cooking Method
- On a grill skillet, grill the beef until desired temperature (rare, med/rare, medium, well-done) and leave the steak to rest
- In a mixing bowl, add fish sauce, sugar, chilli powder, shallots and lime juice. Pour hot water into the grill skillet and mix together with the beef juice before adding it to the mixing bowl. Mix together before adding half of the ground sticky rice powder. Taste and adjust if desired
- After the beef has rested, slice into bite-size pieces and add to the mixing bowl with mint and coriander leaves. Mix together and more ground sticky rice powder to thicken the sauce if needed
- Serve with freshly made sticky rice, lettuce and cucumber. Enjoy!
AMAZING!!
1-2 tablespoons of chilli powder is insane. I used 1 teaspoon for two people and it was way too much. Did you really mean tablespoons?
Thanks for your comment Michael. Yes, indeed we do mean 1-2 tablespoons (level not heaped), and yes for some, this is insane. However, all together, eaten with sticky rice, wrapped with salad, and some cucumber at the ready, the experience is amazing. We have guest that at first are taken by surprise, but the spicy freshness of this dish is morish, and it’s the summer dish I’m ask for consistently. Jum