Beef with Black Bean Sauce – Phat Neua Tao Jiaw Dam

This has been a long pending post and I have been a little partial to Mirch Masala that it always got the priority when it came to posting. My excuse was that the meat-a-holic had not given his verdict and i could not post without it, but then I got it yesterday and I thought I better post this today!

This recipe is from a yet another new cookbook that i got a couple of weeks ago. I have so many of them now that I have temporarily stopped buying new books till i buy a new bookshelf!! Yeah, yeah, as long as it is some kind of shopping that i do, I am a happy soul. It is this book called “The Food of Thailand” and has many Thai recipes other than the regular red/yellow/green/massaman curries and phad thai!! The best section i like about this book is the Thailand street food section. I believe, street food is that which gives out the culinary secrets of a particular country. This is something I made for AJ last week, when I already had something just for me, leftover from my lunch ( and i was selfish and didnt want to share!!). So i made this beef stir fry with some jasmine rice and AJ had a very happy tummy after this ! :D

Beef with Black Bean Sauce

This is a Chinese dish which is found very often in various forms in Thailand. As usual, I played around with the ingredients and the quantities as from the original recipe!

1/2 lb sirloin steak ( i think its about 1/2 lb – we got this small box of it from the meat and seafood aisle at the grocery store), finely sliced 1 1/2 tbsp black bean garlic sauce 2 tsp fish sauce 2 tsp oyster flavoured sauce 1/3 cup beef stock 1 tsp chilli oil 1/2 tsp sugar 1 tbsp canola oil 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced 1 small carrot, cut into fine matchstick strips 3-4 snake beans, cut into 3 inch lengths 3-4 scallions/ spring onions, cut into 1.5 inch lengths a few cilantro sprigs, to garnish

Mix the black bean garlic sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, beef stock, chilli oil and sugar in a small bowl and keep aside.

Heat the canola oil in a wok and stir-fry the onion over high heat. Add the meat and stir-fry over medium-high heat for 5-7 mins until cooked well.  Add the carrot, snake beans and the sauce mixture and stir-fry for a couple of minutes. Add the spring onions as well and cook for a few seconds. Garnish with chopped cilantro leaves and serve hot with jasmine rice and any Thai curry.

The Meat-a-holic's Verdict: The meat is amazingly tender! The sauce is really tasty, but might scare off the salt haters. Can stand to get a little bit more spicy. Can’t get enough of it with the rice!! 8/10.