Vietnamese Skirt Steak With Crying Tiger Sauce- Recipe
According to the Chinese Zodiac calendar, 2022, is the year of the Tiger, starting from February 1st, 2022, and ending on January 21st, 2023.
The Tiger is known as the king of all beasts in Asia and is a symbol of strength and braveness. So, what’s more suiting than to start the year with some Crying Tiger Steak & Dipping sauce.
I was craving a Vietnamese style grilled steak and decided to pair it with this spicy Crying Tiger dipping sauce. This Thai “nam jim jeaw” dipping sauce is so hot it’s said it can make a tiger cry!
Typically skirt or flank steak is used, I opted for the skirt steak because it has nice stripe like textures on the outside of the meat.
The sauce is so DELICIOUS and is very similar to our Vietnamese nuoc mam cham sauce, it includes crushed red chili flakes, fresh Thai red chili peppers, ground toasted rice powder, minced shallots, chopped cilantro and green onions. Mmm
Like a tiger, I like my meat on the rarer side.. arrrrr 🤤😂
For the steak I just seasoned the steak with salt and pepper and let it come to room temperature on the kitchen counter. Then I added a little oil to a cast iron pan until hot, added the steaks and cooked for 2-3 min each side (for rare), in the last minute I added 1/2 a tbs of unsalted butter and about 1/2 tbs of Maggi seasoning to pan and flipped a couple quick times in the pan.
CRYING TIGER DIPPING SAUCE
2 tsp crushed red chili pepper flakes (crushed with mortar and pestle)
1 tbs palm sugar or packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon toasted rice powder
3 tbs fish sauce
3 tbs lime juice
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon finely sliced green onions
1 tbs finely chopped cilantro stems and/or leaves
1 tbs minced shallots onion
4 red Thai chili peppers
PREPARATION
Crush your chili pepper flakes, brown sugar, and toasted sweet rice with your mortar and pestle.
Add fish sauce, lime juice, water and mix until sugar dissolves. Taste, add fish sauce or lime juice as needed. You can cut fish sauce taste by adding a little more lime juice or water (add 1 tbs at a time).
Add green onions, cilantro and minced shallots and transfer to a bowl & serve.
Let steaks rest about 5 minutes. With a teaspoon or tablespoon ladle a few spoon-fulls of the sauce onto your steaks (sliced or unsliced is fine).