Thai-style ‘crying tiger’ tomahawk steak with dipping sauce
Serve with sticky rice, charred green beans and sliced cucumber, with lettuce leaves to make handheld cups, if liked.
- Serves4
- CourseMain meal
- Prepare20 mins
- Cook30 mins
- Total time50 mins
- Plusmarinating and resting
Ingredients
- 1 British Beef Tomahawk Bone-in Rib Steak
- 3 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1½ tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp Cooks’ Ingredients Palm Sugar
- 2 tbsp Vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp black peppercorns, crushed
For the dipping sauce
- 100g jar Cooks’ Ingredients Tamarind Paste
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 limes, juice
- 2 tbsp Cooks’ Ingredients Palm Sugar
- 2 small shallots, finely sliced
- ½ x 25g pack coriander, leaves roughly chopped, plus extra leaves to serve
- 2 Thai chillies, finely chopped
Method
Season the steak with salt and place in a large non-reactive dish. Mix the soy, oyster sauce, palm sugar, oil and peppercorns together and pour over, rubbing into the steak. Loosely cover and chill for at least 30 minutes, ideally 2 hours ahead (or up to 24 hours in advance), turning the steak occasionally.
Prepare the barbecue for direct grilling (see tips). Shake off any excess marinade, then reserve. Grill the steak over a medium-hot part of the barbecue, turning every 1-2 minutes and moving around as needed. If the barbecue is too hot, flames flare up from dripping fat or the meat browns too quickly, move briefly to a cooler spot. For more colour or to render the fat, shift it over to a hotter part of the grill. Brush with reserved marinade as you turn the steak for the first 10-15 minutes, then discard any remaining marinade.
Cook for a total of 25-30 minutes for medium-rare in the centre and well browned on the outside. For accuracy, test at the thickest part using an instant-read meat thermometer – it will read 55ºC (see tips).
Transfer the cooked steak to a platter or plate and leave to rest for at least 15 minutes, loosely covered with foil. While it rests, mix all the ingredients together for the dipping sauce.
Cut the rested steak against the grain into 0.5cm thick slices, then return to the dish. Top with coriander leaves and serve with the dipping sauce alongside.
Cook’s tip
For an extra authentic twist, make toasted rice powder to add crunch and smoky notes to the dipping sauce. Toast 2 tbsp Thai sticky rice (or sushi rice) in a dry pan over a medium-high heat, tossing until golden brown (6-8 minutes). Cool and crush in a pestle and mortar or spice grinder, until the consistency of coarse black pepper. Mix with the other sauce ingredients.
The dip makes more than you’ll need for this recipe. Save half in the fridge and keep for up to 3 days, serving with fish or meat, over rice or for dipping.
Set up zones on the barbecue for cooking to allow flexibility, with a hot side for searing and charring, a medium area in the centre to gradually build flavour and browning, and a cooler side for resting, then finishing off larger cuts.
For charcoal, light the barbecue (ideally using a charcoal chimney rather than lighter fluid) 15-20 minutes ahead, waiting until the coals glow white and any flames have subsided. Add the coals to the barbecue, banking them to one side (almost piled up like a hillside), leaving the opposite side almost free of hot coals. Open any vents at the base of the barbecue.
For gas, preheat a covered barbecue with the burners set over the highest heat for 10 minutes, then turn one burner to medium and leave one on high. If your gas barbecue doesn’t have a cooling shelf, turn one burner off once preheated, so you’ve got a cooler spot.
In general, for this type of cut with good marbling and visible fat, cooking it any rarer or more well done is not recommended. If this is your preference, reduce or increase the cooking time by about 5 minutes either side to achieve rare (50ºC) or medium (60ºC). However you do it, ensure all cut surfaces of the meat are thoroughly cooked.
The steak will need to rest after cooking. Loosely covering it with foil helps it to stay warm as the meat relaxes. Keep any resting juices to serve. Slicing the meat on the diagonal means you’ll cut across the muscle fibres instead of along them – this is a clever way to maximise tenderness in every bite.
Nutritional
Typical values per serving when made using specific products in recipe
Energy | 2,995kJ/ 720kcals |
|---|---|
Fat | 52g |
Saturated Fat | 19g |
Carbohydrates | 27g |
Sugars | 21g |
Fibre | 2.9g |
Protein | 35g |
Salt | 6.7g |