- 15 hours ago
Bring bold, vibrant flavors to your table with a classic Thai steak dish. In this video, Chef John shows you how to make Crying Tiger steak with an aggressively seasoned marinade and a savory, tart tamarind dipping sauce. Whether you choose a perfectly grilled option or the extra-savory charred method, this simple recipe delivers an incredibly tender and tasty meal.
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Crying Tiger Steak.
00:08That's right, I'm very excited to be sharing this incredible Thai steak dish.
00:13And while nobody knows for sure why the tiger was crying,
00:16if there's any weeping that happens after you make this,
00:19I'll guarantee those will be from tears of joy.
00:22So with that, let's go ahead and get started by making our marinade,
00:26which starts with a whole bunch of crushed garlic,
00:28plus a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper.
00:31And then we'll also add some soy sauce, some Asian fish sauce, as well as some oyster sauce.
00:38And thanks to those three things, we're probably not going to need any salt here,
00:42since those contain a fair amount.
00:44Plus our dipping sauce is aggressively seasoned, so we should be fine.
00:48And then for a little bit of acid, we'll squeeze in some fresh lime juice.
00:52And then we'll finish up with a touch of sugar and a little bit of vegetable oil
00:56before we take a whisk and give this a good mix,
00:59at which point we can go ahead and grab whatever steak we're going to grill,
01:03which for me is going to be a New York strip.
01:05And what we'll do is toss that in and flip it around until it's nicely coated.
01:09And while we do, let's go ahead and give it the old polka polka with the forks,
01:14just to help work a little bit of that marinade inside.
01:18And yes, this was an extremely beautifully marbled piece of meat,
01:21since my butcher had American Wagyu on sale at the same price as regular New York.
01:25So because of that, and my expense account,
01:29I actually bought two New Yorks,
01:31so I could show you two versions using the same ingredients.
01:34But anyway, once our steak's been flipped and forked,
01:37we will take a spoon and spoon some marinade up over the top,
01:41at which point we're going to wrap this
01:42and let it marinate in the fridge at least four to six hours.
01:46Although overnight actually works even better,
01:48which is what I did.
01:50And as I mentioned, I did that to two steaks.
01:53And this is the other one,
01:55which, believe it or not, was even fattier,
01:57although not quite as thick.
01:59And what we'll do for this first version
02:01is scrape off all the marinade,
02:03and then we'll transfer it onto a plate
02:05and scrape the marinade off the other side.
02:08Before we finish the job, with a few paper towels,
02:11attempting to get the surface as dry as we can.
02:14And we're going to refer to this one as the safe and normal version,
02:17since if you don't remove the marinade from a steak like this
02:20and you put it on a hot grill,
02:22it'll pretty much completely char in just a few minutes,
02:25which, by the way, we're going to do on purpose for the second version.
02:28And that's it.
02:29Before we grill,
02:30we'll let that sit on the counter for about 30 minutes to warm up a bit.
02:34And while we wait,
02:35we can go ahead and make our dipping sauce,
02:37which, believe it or not,
02:39starts with some raw rice,
02:40which we are going to toast in a pan over medium heat
02:43until it's a beautiful, fairly deep golden brown.
02:46And what's going to happen is it's going to lose its hardness
02:49and become crispy and crunchy.
02:52And it sort of tastes like those half-pop kernels of popcorn
02:55at the bottom of the pot.
02:57And once that's toasted enough,
02:58we will grind it in our mortar
03:00until we've pestled it into a nice coarse powder.
03:04And I really hope you take the extra couple minutes to do this step,
03:07since it really does create a more interesting flavor
03:10and definitely a way more interesting texture.
03:13And then for the rest of the sauce,
03:15we're going to combine some tamarind,
03:17which is very tart and citrusy
03:19and a little bit sweet.
03:20And we'll combine that with some minced shallots,
03:23although regular onion will work in a pinch.
03:26And then we'll also do some chopped cilantro,
03:28plus some spicy dry chili flakes,
03:31as well as some wet chili flakes
03:33in the form of sambal.
03:35We will also definitely need some Asian fish sauce,
03:38followed by some fresh lime juice.
03:41And of course, all these amounts are up to you.
03:43You could use a half or a whole
03:45or whatever you're into.
03:47And then to balance things out,
03:48we'll put in a little bit of sugar.
03:50And I'm using half brown and half white,
03:52which is my standard substitute for palm sugar,
03:55which is what we're supposed to use.
03:57And then personally,
03:58I like to add just a small splash of water.
04:00So this isn't super thick,
04:02since our last ingredient
04:04is going to be our rice powder.
04:06And as this sauce sits,
04:07that's definitely going to thicken it up a touch.
04:10And by the way,
04:11if you want to save a little bit of that
04:12to garnish with,
04:13I don't think that's a bad idea.
04:15And that's it.
04:16Once our sauce is done
04:17and our steak is warmed up a little bit,
04:19we can go ahead and toss that on our grill,
04:22where I'm going to cook this
04:23for about three minutes per side,
04:24since this wasn't a super thick steak.
04:26And as usual,
04:28about halfway through the time for each side,
04:29I like to give it a half turn,
04:32just for some extra grill marks,
04:33but also to even things out
04:35in case we have some hot spots.
04:37And as you can see,
04:39because we did scrape off the marinade,
04:41we're not getting a ton of charring,
04:43which is why we're calling this
04:44the safe and normal version.
04:46Right?
04:47This looks like what people think
04:48a grilled steak looks like.
04:50And as far as doneness goes,
04:52we're going to shoot for about medium,
04:54since we are going to slice this
04:55into thin strips.
04:56And if your meat's too rare,
04:58that usually doesn't work out too well,
05:00since it's just not firm enough.
05:02In fact, some of my Thai friends
05:04insist we cook this like medium well,
05:06but I'm sorry,
05:07I just can't do it.
05:08And there'll be enough pieces at the ends
05:10if you kind of like it that way.
05:12In any event,
05:13we'll let that rest about five minutes
05:14before we slice it.
05:16And like I said,
05:17we're going to cut that
05:17in a nice thin strips.
05:19Oh, and by the way,
05:21there was a little fatty piece
05:22on the edge
05:23that I did not trim off,
05:24because I knew eventually
05:25after I grilled this,
05:27I was going to slice that off
05:28and have a little chef snack.
05:30Oh yeah, if you're the one cooking,
05:32do not forget your chef snacks.
05:34And then pro tip,
05:35once we have that sliced,
05:37I think we want to spend
05:38half a minute
05:39kind of fanning it out
05:40so we can see some of that
05:42nice juicy pink meat
05:43underneath the grilled surface.
05:45And once that's been arranged,
05:47we'll place on our sides,
05:48which for me is a nice cucumber salad,
05:50and we'll garnish our sauce
05:51with some of that toasted rice powder.
05:53And then we'll grab some chopsticks
05:55and dig in.
05:56And that, my friends,
05:57is going to be one of the most
05:59flavorful bites of steak
06:00you've ever had.
06:01Okay, that marinade gives us
06:03a nice head start on the flavor.
06:04But that dipping sauce,
06:06as you might imagine,
06:07just amplifies everything
06:09like ten times.
06:10And once you start grabbing
06:12and dipping,
06:13it's really, really hard to stop.
06:15Oh, and by the way,
06:17with the steak sliced like this
06:18and fanned out,
06:19given a sort of a striped effect,
06:22what animal does that remind you of?
06:24So I think that's what
06:25represents the tiger.
06:27And then that incredible sauce
06:28dripping off the pieces
06:29represents the tears.
06:31But anyway, to summarize,
06:33our safe and normal version of this
06:35was absolutely outstanding.
06:37And I'm assuming most of you
06:38will go with this method.
06:40But for you thrill seekers,
06:42you renegades,
06:43you outlaws,
06:44you crying tigers,
06:46let me go ahead and show you
06:47the second dark and dangerous method,
06:49where we do not remove
06:50the marinade from the steak.
06:52All right, we're going to pull it out
06:53and put it on the grill wet.
06:55And not only that,
06:56I used like twice as many coals
06:58to get an even more intense heat.
07:01And I'm going to cook this one
07:02about the same amount of time.
07:03But because it's thicker,
07:05it's going to end up somewhere
07:06between medium rare and medium.
07:08And what happens if you don't
07:09remove a marinade like this,
07:11and it's over this high of heat,
07:13that surface is going to
07:14pretty much char completely.
07:16And it's going to look like
07:17you totally ruined your steak.
07:19But you did not.
07:20And I'll explain exactly why
07:22when we slice this.
07:24Oh, and just FYI,
07:26the second side never chars as much
07:27as the first side for whatever reason.
07:29But it is still going to
07:30darken substantially.
07:32And once I decided
07:33that was cooked to my liking,
07:34I pulled it off the grill
07:36and took it inside.
07:37And again, let it rest
07:38five minutes before I cut it.
07:40And there are two reasons
07:42we can get away
07:42with a full char on this.
07:44The first and most important one
07:46is that this charring
07:47causes no burnt aftertaste.
07:49And believe me, if it did,
07:50I would not be showing it to you.
07:52Okay, this really is going to taste
07:54the same as the first steak.
07:55Except Michelle and I both agreed better,
07:58since it seemed to somehow
07:59intensify the flavors.
08:01And then the second reason is
08:02because we're slicing this so thin,
08:04each piece of steak we're eating
08:06only has a thin strip
08:07of that charring attached.
08:08Okay, if we were going to serve this
08:10like a regular steak,
08:11that full charring
08:12might put some people off.
08:14But in this format,
08:15we don't have to worry about that.
08:17Oh, and then let me give you
08:18another tip here.
08:19If we were going to serve this
08:20on a platter to a larger group,
08:22I think we should also
08:23cut it down the center,
08:25which is going to double
08:26our number of pieces.
08:27And once we do that
08:28and fan them out,
08:29it's actually going to seem like
08:30we have a lot more meat
08:31than we do.
08:32And while it doesn't look
08:33quite as tiger-like
08:34as the last presentation,
08:36I still think it looks
08:37very enticing.
08:38But anyway,
08:39we serve that up the same way
08:41with a cucumber salad,
08:43this time that included
08:44some Fresno chilies,
08:46and of course that same
08:47fantastic dipping sauce.
08:49And yes, I did spoon
08:50a little bit of that
08:51over the meat,
08:52just so I could get
08:53some different-looking
08:54contractually obligated pictures.
08:56But anyway,
08:57in conclusion,
08:58if you're brave enough,
08:59we think the full char method
09:01is the way to go.
09:02And as I said earlier,
09:03all the ingredients
09:04we used in the marinade
09:05and the sauce
09:06can be tweaked to your liking,
09:08in case you wanted
09:09a little more sweet
09:09or salty
09:10or sour or spicy.
09:12I mean,
09:12you are, after all,
09:13the pie lin
09:14of what you put in.
09:16And yes,
09:16I'm referring to
09:17the lovely and talented pie
09:18from Hot Thai Kitchen
09:20where I adapted
09:20this recipe from.
09:22But whether you change
09:23this or not,
09:24or whether you use
09:25the safe normal method,
09:26or the dark and dangerous
09:28and extra delicious method,
09:29this makes for an amazing steak.
09:31And we really do hope
09:33you give it a try soon.
09:34So please follow the links below
09:36for the ingredient amounts,
09:38a printable written recipe,
09:39and much more info as usual.
09:41And as always,
09:44enjoy.
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