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Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with crying tiger steak. That's right. I'm very excited to be sharing this incredible Thai steak dish. And while nobody knows for sure why the tiger was crying, if there's any weeping that happens after you make this, I'll guarantee those will be from tears of joy. So, with that, let's go ahead and get started by making our marinade, which starts with a whole bunch of crushed garlic, plus a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper. And then we'll also add some soy sauce, some Asian fish sauce, as well as some oyster sauce. And thanks to those three things, we're probably not going to need any salt here, since those contain a fair amount.
Plus, our dipping sauce is aggressively seasoned, so we should be fine. And then for a little bit of acid, we'll squeeze in some fresh lime juice. And then we'll finish up with a touch of sugar and a little bit of vegetable oil before we take a whisk and give this a good mix. At which point we can go ahead and grab whatever steak we're going to grill, which for me is going to be New York strip. And what we'll do is toss that in and flip it around until it's nicely coated. And while we do, let's go ahead and give it the old poke, poke with the forks. Just to help work a little bit of that marinade inside. And yes, this wasn't extremely beautifully marbled piece of meat, since my butcher had American Wagyu on sale at
the same price as regular New York. So, because of that, and my expense account, I actually bought two New Yorks, so I could show you two versions using the same ingredients. But anyway, once our steak's been flipped and forked, we will take a spoon and spoon some marinade up over the top. At which point we're going to wrap this and let it marinate in the fridge at least 4 to 6 hours. Although, overnight actually works even better, which is what I did. And as I mentioned, I did that to two steaks. And this is the other one, which believe it or not was even fattier, although not quite as thick. And what we'll do for this first version is scrape off all the marinade, and then we'll transfer it onto a plate and
scrape the marinade off the other side before we finish the job with a few paper towels, attempting to get the surface as dry as we can. And we're going to refer to this one as the safe and normal version, since if you don't remove the marinade from a steak like this and you put it on a hot grill, it'll pretty much completely char in just a few minutes. Which, by the way, we're going to do on purpose for the second version. And that's it. Before we grill, we'll let that sit on the counter for about 30 minutes to warm up a bit. And while we wait, we can go ahead and make our dipping sauce, which, believe it or not, starts with some raw rice, which we are going to toast in a pan over medium heat until it's a beautiful,
fairly deep golden brown. And what's going to happen is it's going to lose its hardness and become crispy and crunchy. And it sort of tastes like those half-popped kernels of popcorn at the bottom of the pot. And once that's toasted enough, we will grind it in our mortar until we pestled it into a nice coarse powder. And I really hope you take the extra couple minutes to do this step, since it really does create a more interesting flavor and definitely a way more interesting texture. And then for the rest of the sauce, we're going to combine some tamarind, which is very tart and citrusy and a little bit sweet. And we'll combine that with some minced shallots, although regular onion will work in a pinch. And then we'll also do some chopped
cilantro, plus some spicy dry chili flakes, as well as some wet chili flakes in the form of sambal. We will also definitely need some Asian fish sauce, followed by some fresh lime juice. And of course, all these amounts are up to you. You could use a half or a whole or whatever you're into. And then to balance things out, we'll put in a little bit of sugar, and I'm using half brown and half white, which is my standard substitute for palm sugar, which is what we're supposed to use. And then personally, I like to add just a small splash of water. So, this isn't super thick. Since our last ingredient is going to be our rice powder. And as this sauce sits, that's definitely going to thicken it up a touch.
And by the way, if you want to save a little bit of that to garnish with, I don't think that's a bad idea. And that's it. Once our sauce is done and our steak is warmed up a little bit, we can go ahead and toss that on our grill. Where I'm going to cook this for about 3 minutes per side, since this wasn't a super thick steak. And as usual, about halfway through the time for each side, I like to give it a half turn. Just for some extra grill marks, but also to even things out in case we have some hot spots. And as you can see, because we did scrape off the marinade, we're not getting a ton of charring. Which is why we're calling this the safe and normal version.
Right, this looks like what people think a grilled steak looks like. And as far as doneness goes, we're going to shoot for about medium. Since we are going to slice this into thin strips. And if your meat's too rare, that usually doesn't work out too well. Since it's just not firm enough. In fact, some of my Thai friends insist we cook this like medium well. But I'm sorry, I just can't do it. And there'll be enough pieces at the ends if you kind of like it that way. In any event, we'll let that rest about 5 minutes before we slice it. And like I said, we're going to cut that into nice thin strips.
Oh, and by the way, there was a little fatty piece on the edge that I did not trim off, because I knew eventually after I grilled this, I was going to slice that off and have a little chef snack. Oh, yeah. If you're the one cooking, do not forget your chef snacks. And then pro tip, once we have that sliced, I think we want to spend half a minute kind of fanning it out, so we can see some of that nice juicy pink meat underneath the grilled surface. And once that's been arranged, we'll place on our sides, which for me is a nice cucumber salad, and we'll garnish our sauce with some of that toasted rice powder. And I'll grab some chopsticks and dig in.
And that, my friends, is going to be one of the most flavorful bites of steak you've ever had. Okay, that marinade gives us a nice head start on the flavor. But that dipping sauce, as you might imagine, just amplifies everything like 10 times. And once you start grabbing and dipping, it's really, really hard to stop. Oh, and by the way, with the steak sliced like this and fanned out, giving it sort of a striped effect, what animal does that remind you of? So, I think that's what represents the tiger. And then that incredible sauce dripping off the pieces represents the tears. But anyway, to summarize, our safe and normal version of this was absolutely outstanding. And I'm assuming most of you will go with this method. But for you
thrill-seekers, you renegades, you outlaws, you crying tigers, let me go ahead and show you the second dark and dangerous method, where we do not remove the marinade from the steak. Right? We're going to pull it out and put it on the grill wet. And not only that, I used like twice as many coals to get an even more intense heat. And I'm going to cook this one about the same amount of time, but because it's thicker, it's going to end up somewhere between medium rare and medium. And what happens if you don't remove a marinade like this, and it's over this high of heat, that surface is going to pretty much char completely, and it's going to look like you totally ruined your steak. But you did not.
And I'll explain exactly why when we slice this. Oh, and just FYI, the second side never chars as much as the first side for whatever reason, but it is still going to darken substantially. And once I decided that was cooked to my liking, I pulled it off the grill and took it inside. And again, let it rest 5 minutes before I cut it. And there are two reasons we can get away with a full char on this. The first and most important one is that this charring causes no burnt aftertaste. And believe me, if it did, I would not be showing it to you.
Okay, this really is going to taste the same as the first steak, except Michelle and I both agreed better, since it seemed to somehow intensify the flavors. And then the second reason is because we're slicing this so thin, each piece of steak we're eating only has a thin strip of that charring attached. Okay, if we were going to serve this like a regular steak, that full charring might put some people off. But in this format, we don't have to worry about that. Oh, and then let me give you another tip here. If we were going to serve this on a platter to a larger group, I think we should also cut it down the center, which is going to double our number of pieces. And once we do that and fan them
out, it's actually going to seem like we have a lot more meat than we do. And while it doesn't look quite as tiger-like as the last presentation, I still think it looks very enticing. But anyway, we served that up the same way, with a cucumber salad. This time they'd included some Fresno chilies. And of course that same fantastic dipping sauce. And yes, I did spoon a little bit of that over the meat, just so I could get some different-looking contractually obligated pictures. But anyway, in conclusion, if you're brave enough, we think the full char method is the way to go. And as I said earlier, all the ingredients we used in the marinade and the sauce can be tweaked to your liking. In case you wanted a little more sweet
or salty or sour or spicy. I mean, you are after all the pie land of what you put in. And yes, I'm referring to the lovely and talented Pie from Hot Thai Kitchen, where I adapted this recipe from. But whether you change this or not, or whether you use the safe normal method, or the dark and dangerous and extra delicious method, this makes for an amazing steak, and we really do hope you give it a try soon. So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe and much more info as usual. And as always, enjoy.
