Muoi Khuntilanont's Kitchen

                                 neua yang

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                             barbequed chicken

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          Description

          yang dishes are the Thai equivalent of barbeque food.
          The most common in the Isan (Northeast Thailand) is
          undoubtedly kai yang (chicken) where a chicken is split
          open, beaten flat, and gripped in a cleft stick to
          grill over the brazier. This is widely sold by street
          hawkers and is a popular snack (you are rather more
          likely to see a Thai child walking along chewing on a
          kai yang than licking an ice cream cone!)

          This version -- neua yang or barbequed beef -- has a
          more assertive sauce to go with the stronger flavor of
          the beef. It is best accompanied with a bottle of
          strong beer, especially when eaten as lunch during a
          break from working in the paddy fields... At dinner a
          good Italian red wine is I think the best choice...

          And of course if you don't have a charcoal brazier, or
          the weather is shade cooler than here (its 38 Celsius
          [100 Fahrenheit] outside as I type this...) then you
          could just as easily prepare this dish on a griddle or
          broil it in the oven (but it does taste best if it can
          absorb the flavor of the charcoal smake).

          Ingredients

          1/2 pound of steak

          3 tablespoons of hom daeng (shallots/purple onions)
          sliced very thinly
          1 tablespoon nam manao (lime juice)
          1 tablespoon nam pla (fish sauce)
          1 tablespoon si-iew wan ('sweet' or mushroom soy)
          1 tablespoon of ton hom (spring onion/scallion/green
          onion), incl. tops, sliced
          1 teaspoon bai chi (coriander/cilantro leaf) chopped.
          1 teaspoon of nam tan paep (palm sugar)
          1 teaspoon of prik phon (powdered dried red chilis)

          Method

          First prepare a serving platter, lined with lettuce
          leaves, and decorated with sliced cucumber.

          Combine the ingredients to make the sauce. taste and if
          required add extra sugar, lime juice and/or prik phon.

          Note you can substitute sauteed onion for the shallots
          if they are unavailable.

          Also, remember when using prik phon (and sugar) in
          sauce preparation that the diners can always add more
          at the table, but they can't remove it if you put too
          much in! neua yang is not supposed to be a very hot
          dish.

          barbeque the steak to whatever "doneness" you prefer,
          then slice into slices an eighth of an inch thick, and
          then cut the slices into bite sized pieces. Place on
          the lettuce, and pour the sauce over the steak.

          Serving & Storage

          For an evening meal I would suggest serving it with a
          salad such as the yam polamai, and a soup such as tam
          kha kai (chicken soup with a coconut milk stock).

          Served as a one-plate dinner, this serves one fairly
          hungry diner, but with the soup and salad should be
          adequate for four people.

          Accompany with the usual Thai condiments

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