Ping Seua Hong Hai
Lao Style Grilled Beef with Chili Sauce
As the legend has it, Seua Hong Hai or "crying tiger", an ancient dish of marinated and grilled brisket eaten in Laos and Isan, got its name because villagers would find cow briskets in the forest, from cows killed and devoured by tigers, and imagine the tigers were very sad because they hadn't managed to eat the briskets as well. You won't be sad when you make it, however, as this relatively simply dish is quite tasty.
As mentioned, brisket is the main ingredient in this dish. However, where I live in California, it's very hard to find brisket and very easy and cheap to find tri-tip. While the two cuts are not identical, they come from different parts of the animals, tri-tip works well for recipes where brisket is grilled or broiled - so I used tri-tip instead, which worked wonderfully.
I am still not very clear what the original recipe meant with "chili powder". I took a guess that it would mean "Thai chili powder" but this name refers to the flakes of dried Thai chilis and to a mixture of these with garlic and other spices. I've seen Thai chili powder substituted for sriracha in other recipes, and that's what I decided to use. I only used 2 teaspoons, as I do not like spicy food, but my husband would have been happy with twice as much. I didn't have cilantro so I didn't use it, but it would have added a nice freshness to the sauce.
In any case, this was very tasty and my hubby was particularly happy with the dish.
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Lao Style Grilled Beef with Chili Sauce
Ingredients
For the beef
- 2 lbs brisket or tri-tip
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp oyster sauce
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tsp fish sauce
- 2 tsp palm or brown sugar
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
For the chili sauce
- 3 Tbsp tamarind concentrate
- 3 Tbsp fish sauce
- 3 Tbsp palm or brown sugar
- 1 1/2 Tbsp chopped cilantro
- 2-4 tsp Thai chili powder or sriracha
- 1 1/2 tsp roasted rice powder
Directions
Marinate the Beef
Cut beef into thin slices. Place in a bowl, add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, vegetable oil, fish sauce, sugar and minced garlic and mix well. Let marinade for at least 30 minutes.
Make the chili sauce
Place tamarind concentrate, fish sauce and sugar in a small cooking pot and stir over medium heat until the sugar melts. Remove from heat and mix in the chopped cilantro, chili powder or sriracha and roasted rice powder.
Preheat grill to medium or broiler pan. Lay beef slices on a single layer and grill or broil for 3-5 minutes per side. When they're almost done, brush sauce over the beef and grill or broil for a minute.
Serve with remaining chili sauce on the side.
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Adapted from Kimmi Kim's recipe at Zap.la
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