Stir-Fried Thai-Style Beef with Chiles and Shallots

with Spicy Marinated Cucumber Salad and Jasmine Rice
The key to this dish is twofold: first, get Thai basil. It is a cross between mint and fennel — the taste is indescribable. Second, get tamarind concentrate (or paste.) It gives an authentic touch that is difficult to duplicate with substitutes. Palm sugar is good, but brown will do. Piquin chiles are good, but serrano or even jalapeños are okay.

Serves 4 with rice

Beef and Marinade
1 T tamarind concentrate
1/2 tsp. ground white pepper
1 tsp. palm sugar
2 T fish sauce (Nam Pla)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 T minced garlic
2 T lime juice
2 pounds Boston or New York steak , trimmed and cut into 1/4-inch-thick strips

Stir-Fry
2 T Nam Pla
2 T rice vinegar
2 T water
1 T palm sugar
1 T Asian chili-garlic paste
4 medium cloves garlic , minced (about 2 tablespoons)
3 T vegetable oil
10 Thai bird chiles (piquin), halved, seeds and ribs removed, chiles cut crosswise 1/8 inch thick
3 medium shallots , trimmed of ends, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and layers separated
1/2 cup Thai purple basil, in chiffonade
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped coarsely
1/3 cup chopped unsalted roasted peanuts

Lime wedges for serving

1. For the beef and marinade: Combine marinade ingredients in large bowl. Add beef, toss well to combine; marinate as long as possible. Overnight is good, minimum is one hour.

2. For the stir-fry: In small bowl, stir together fish sauce, vinegar, water, palm sugar, and chili-garlic paste until sugar dissolves; set aside. In small bowl, mix garlic with 1 tsp. oil; set aside. Heat 2 tsp. oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over high heat until smoking; add one-third of beef to skillet in even layer. Cook, without stirring, until well browned, about 2 minutes, then stir and continue cooking until beef is browned around edges and no longer pink in the center, about 30 seconds. Transfer beef to medium bowl. Repeat with additional oil and remaining meat in 2 more batches.

3. After transferring last batch of beef to bowl, reduce heat to medium; add remaining 2 tsp. oil to now-empty skillet and swirl to coat. Add chiles and shallots and cook, stirring frequently, until beginning to soften, 3 to 4 minutes. Push chile-shallot mixture to sides of skillet to clear center; add garlic to clearing and cook, mashing mixture with spoon, until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Stir to combine garlic with chile-shallot mixture. Add fish sauce mixture to skillet; increase heat to high and cook until slightly reduced and thickened, about 30 seconds. Return beef and any accumulated juices to skillet, toss well to combine and coat with sauce, stir in half of mint and cilantro; serve immediately, sprinkling individual servings with portion of peanuts and remaining herbs, and passing lime wedges separately.

Spicy Cucumber Salad
1/2 cucumber, peeled and sliced thinly
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. sambal oelek, sriracha or garlic-chile paste
dash lime juice

Combine thoroughly, marinate for a couple of hours in refrigerator. Serve.

Jasmine Rice
2 cups jasmine rice
2 1/3 cups chicken broth
Stick cinnamon
3 cloves
3 cardamom pods
Ghee (clarified butter)

Wash rice until water runs clear. Soak in water for 2 hours, drain. In large sauté pan on medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons ghee or vegetable oil. Fry spices for a couple of minutes. Add drained rice. Stirring constantly, fry for about five minutes, or until glassy. Add hot chicken broth, stir to combine, reduce heat to minimum, cover with aluminum foil and pan lid. Let steam for 18 minutes or so, remove from heat and let rest for 10 more minutes. Remove lid. Remove whole spices and fluff up. Serve.

Crevettes Marseillaise Pastis au fromage

Here's that shrimp recipe I was promising you. It's entirely improvised; I didn't base it on anything I'd read. But obviously it has its predecessors.

Key here is to flambé the pastis at two stages; when the mushrooms are cooking (they'll absorb a LOT of pastis flavor) and when the shrimps are sautéing (they absolutely suck the stuff in, it's incredible) but to be careful -- hair and eyebrows are at risk. Use a long kitchen match and don't use as I did a midget cigarette lighter. The only reason I have my eyebrows is that food in my kitchen knows very well who's boss.

The pearl onions are a major pain to peel but they taste great. If you can get them frozen, use those.

Ingredients
10-20 very large raw jumbo shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails removed, brined for 30 minutes
I cup finely chopped shallots
Lots of large garlic cloves, finely minced
5-6 cremini mushrooms, sliced
10-20 cipollini (pearl onions, peeled)
Small container crème fraîche
Whole milk
Flour
Chicken broth
2 cups hard cheese, preferably asiago, aged cheddar or Marechal au Lait Cru, grated
Compound herb butter from scratch (butter, sautéed chopped shallots, garlic, Italian parsley)
Red pepper flakes
Pastis as needed
I package good dry linguine (Barilla or Rusticella d’Abruzzo) or any fresh pasta not named Olivieri
Italian parsley
Basil

Method
Sauté shallots in compound butter till translucent. Add pearl onions and sauté about ten minutes, stirring constantly. Add some garlic and sauté a further three minutes. Remove. Add compound butter and mushrooms. Sauté on medium heat until mushrooms have lost their water and are beginning to brown.

Carefully, splash some pastis on the hot mushroom mixture and be standing by with a kitchen match or barbecue spark lighter. Stand back and flambé.

Remove and add to shallot mixture.

Add the container of crème fraîche and about 1/2 cup of milk to the pan and bring to simmering boil, stirring constantly. Stir in a scant tablespoon of flour and continue stirring. Slowly add chicken broth on a medium simmer, perhaps 1/2-to 3/4 cup. Remove from heat when sauce coats back of a spoon. Add cheese and stir in until thoroughly combined. Mix in one tablespoon of pastis and two tablespoons of chopped Italian parsley. Cover.

Start water for linguine. Water must be the salinity of the sea.

Clean and rinse soaking shrimp. In new, clean stir-fry pan, melt at least two tablespoons of compound butter on medium heat. Add more garlic and about a tablespoon of red pepper flakes. Mix thoroughly and bring to a simmer. Drop in shrimp and distribute evenly. Now, about one minute after dropping in the shrimp and not having turned them over, increase heat slightly and splash pastis generously in the pan. Light pastis with aforementioned kitchen devices and let flame out.

Turn shrimp over, cook a further minute or so and remove to bowl with shallots and mushroom mixture.

Cook linguine to not even al dente; it must be slightly hard at the center. (In the ten minutes or so between being drained and being on your plate it will come to be fully cooked, and NOT MUSHY). Drain and remove to sauté pan. Now add the cheese/crème fraîche sauce and bring to a very slight simmer. Chop basil and Italian parsley. Add the shrimp and all other ingredients and serve before I come over there and do it for you.