Thai Asian Elk Steak Salad with Crispy Rice Recipe

This Thai elk salad will make your mouth water and belly happy.

October 16, 2024 By Adam Berkelmans

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This recipe was inspired by one of my favorite salads, Thai yum nua. Yum nua generally consists of sliced grilled beef steak served with fresh herbs and smashed tomatoes and cucumbers which get drizzled in a nam pla prik sauce made from garlic, chilies, lime, and fish sauce. All of these things combine to make a synergistic dish that is so much more than the sum of its parts.

I wanted to replicate the dish with wild game, but also give it some more weight, turning it from a light addition to a larger meal into a heartier main dish. I experimented by tossing in freshly cooked white rice, but it didn’t quite have the effect I was looking for. I tried making the dish again the next day, crisping up the leftover rice in the pan after cooking the steaks and serving the salad on top of it. Eureka! I’d found exactly what I was looking for.

Leftover rice will work much better in this recipe, as it has already had some time to dry out. You can use freshly cooked rice in a pinch though.

I decided to take a page from the Vietnamese and add sugar and carrots to the dressing, making more of a nước chấm sauce than a nam pla prik. I found the former to work better with the final dish.

Feel free to make this dish with any type of steak; moose, venison, antelope, or domestic beef would all work great!

Elk salad dish — (Photo courtesy of Adam Berkelmans)

Serves: 4
Prep Time: 22 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes

Ingredients for Dressing:

2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1-2 red chilies, finely minced (or use 2 teaspoons chili paste)
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons hot water
1-2 tablespoons white sugar
1 lime, juiced
1/4 carrot, peeled and grated

Ingredients for the Salad:

8 oz elk loin, sirloin, or round steaks
Kosher salt
1 tablespoon neutral oil or lard
Pepper
3 cups leftover white or brown rice
1/2 English or 3 small Lebanese cucumbers
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 bunch fresh mint
1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Directions:

(For the Sauce) Add all of the sauce ingredients to a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Taste and add more sugar to taste if necessary. The dressing should be very bold.
(For the Salad) Season the elk steaks generously with salt. Add the oil to a cast iron or stainless-steel pan over high heat. Add the elk steaks and cook until medium doneness (140°F), flipping once. Take off the heat to rest for 10 minutes and season with black pepper.
Reduce heat to medium-high. Add the leftover rice in clumps to the same pan and cook without disturbing until a brown crust begins to appear, with very light charring. Flip and repeat. Set the rice aside to cool.
Using your fist or the flat of a chef’s knife, smash the cucumbers, then chop into bite-sized pieces. Gently smash the halved tomatoes with the flat of your blade. Pick the mint leaves and discard the stems. Slice the steak into bite-sized pieces.
Add the steak (and any juices that have accumulated), cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs, and half of the dressing to a large bowl and toss to combine. Split the crispy rice evenly between 4 plates or bowls, then spoon over the salad over the rice. Drizzle with the remaining dressing and serve immediately. Enjoy!

Adam Berkelmans

Adam Berkelmans, also known as The Intrepid Eater, is a passionate ambassador for wild food and a proponent of nose-to-tail eating. A Jack-of-all-trades, but master-of-none, he has spent a lifetime collecting knowledge and experiences, trying his hand at wilderness canoe guiding, whole animal butchery, hazard tree removal, riparian restoration, arborist work, organic vegetable farming, park operations, food blogging, recipe development, and education. Starting his brand, The Intrepid Eater, in 2020 as a response to the pandemic, he has since developed over 600 recipes, which can be found on his website, www.theintrepideater.com, and across hunting and outdoor media, both online and in print. With a heavy focus on wild foods, he derives inspiration for his recipes from international flavors and techniques and looks to make his plates pop with bright natural colors and flavors. He also works closely with Harvesting Nature, providing support as managing editor, podcast host, writer, cooking and butchery instructor, and recipe contributor. A Canadian, Adam spends his time between Ottawa and a cozy lake house north of Kingston, Ontario, with his partner Kathy and small münsterländer Arrow. When not cooking, he can be found hunting, fishing, foraging, gardening, reading, traveling, and discovering new ways to find and eat food.

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