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- Joined Feb 3, 2010
A few years ago a friend worked up a recipe for a Thai Beef Cucumber Cup. It tasted amazing but was a chore to eat. Since then I have recreated the recipe in several incarnations but now I'm trying to take it back to its roots.
The problem seems to be the cuke cup; its too big to eat with any grace at a social gathering. Today I tried to 'stick' the beef to a 1/4" slice of cuke by reducing the marinade and then thickening it with some cornstarch. Firstly, (and I should have seen this coming) the marinade became rediculous overpowering in flavour, so I thinned it with some consomme. Secondly, the starch thickening made it more slippery instead of sticky so the topping slid off as soon as you picked up the cuke. I tried anchoring the lot on the cuke with a tiny spear of green onion, and caged it with some very finely sliced red pepper... sadly the beef-marinade became quite gloopy. Still tasted great, but looked like, um, goo.
oh, also, I tried marinading the beef after I had sliced thin and whacked with a rolling pin. I think I may have 'cooked' the beef with the lemon and palm sugar in the mix.
Should I just pho the beef last minute instead of marinating? Can you think of a better way to assemble a single bite size of this yummy combination?
The problem seems to be the cuke cup; its too big to eat with any grace at a social gathering. Today I tried to 'stick' the beef to a 1/4" slice of cuke by reducing the marinade and then thickening it with some cornstarch. Firstly, (and I should have seen this coming) the marinade became rediculous overpowering in flavour, so I thinned it with some consomme. Secondly, the starch thickening made it more slippery instead of sticky so the topping slid off as soon as you picked up the cuke. I tried anchoring the lot on the cuke with a tiny spear of green onion, and caged it with some very finely sliced red pepper... sadly the beef-marinade became quite gloopy. Still tasted great, but looked like, um, goo.
oh, also, I tried marinading the beef after I had sliced thin and whacked with a rolling pin. I think I may have 'cooked' the beef with the lemon and palm sugar in the mix.
Should I just pho the beef last minute instead of marinating? Can you think of a better way to assemble a single bite size of this yummy combination?