Thai Dried Crispy Beef

This dish requires a bit of preparation, but is so worth the trouble. It's like a Thai version of beef jerky and is great as a snack or served with rice as a meal. I've made several versions of this - the most basic just involves flavouring the meat with ground coriander and salt, but this version uses lots of garlic and lemongrass for fragrance.

I've seen many recipes that suggest using filet steak - but unless you enjoy burning money there's absolutely no need to use one of the most expensive cuts of meat. Any nice, lean piece of beef that is of a shape that allows you to cut it into thin slices will do. Here I've used a roasting joint and removed any fat or sinew.

Cut the beef into slices across the grain - no thicker than a pound coin. Then put them in the marinade for anywhere between one and twenty-four hours. In my marinade I used:

Lots of minced garlic
Finely cut lemongrass
Ground coriander
Fish Sauce
Oyster Sauce
Good pinch of brown sugar
A splash of Chinese Ricewine



The next step is to dry the beef. In Thailand they do this in the sun. In Britain you could be waiting an awfully long time - in fact you are more likely to desiccate yourself than your beef in the process. So I lay out the strips of meat on a tray with a wire rack and put them in the oven. Use the lowest possible setting, with fan on if you have one. You may want to keep the oven door ajar if it gets to hot.

Basically you want to dry out the surface of the meat, though still leave a bit of softness and give if you squeeze the dried beef. If you dry it out completely it will end up like deliciously spiced shoe leather. But you also don't want it to sit in a lukewarm oven forever. The longer you leave it, the more time bacteria have to breed. So take that as a sensible warning and don't sue me if you get food poisoning. Just use your common sense. It shouldn't take any more than 75 minutes max, turning the meat over halfway.



Once the meat is done you can either prepare it straight away or put it in the freezer for a delicious snack at a later time. The most common way of cooking it is to deep-fry the beef in hot oil. But on this occasion I've just brushed the slices with oil and stuck them under a very hot grill - it's a little healthier and I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference to be honest.

Thai dried beef is great with sweet chilli sauce and beer.