Beef Lok Lak (Cambodian Recipe)

Submitted by JustJanS

"I ate lots of Lok Lak on a recent holiday to Cambodia. It's similar to Vietnamese Shaking Beef although the Cambodians don't like to admit that. In Cambodia it might come with chips (fries) and a fried egg or rice-I liked the rice option. You eat it by wrapping portions of the meat and salad ingredients in a lettuce leaf, then dipping that in the dipping sauce (the best part of it I reckon). Sometimes the meat is sliced, sometimes it's cubed-I prefer slices. Semi ripe tomatoes are preferred to ripe ones, but use what you have!"

 

• Ready In: 20mins
• Ingredients: 17
• Serves: 2

ingredients

• 300 g beef steaks, sliced (best you can afford)
• 1⁄4 cup light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon tomato sauce (ketchup)
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

• To serve

• 2 small tomatoes, sliced
• 1 cucumber, peeled and finely sliced
• 1⁄2 small red onion, finely sliced
• lettuce, iceberg or romaine leaf

• Dipping sauce

• juice of a lime
• 2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt or 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon water

directions

1. In a large bowl, mix beef with soy sauce, oyster sauce, tomato sauce sugar, fish sauce and ground black pepper and garlic. Marinate at least 20 minutes or up to one hour.
2. Make dipping sauce, combine ingredients in a small bowl-set aside.
3. Decorate two dinner plates with sliced tomatoes, cucumber and onion. Set aside.
4. Place the lettuce leaves on a seperate platter.
5. Heat oil in a wok over a high heat and stir-fry beef until cooked. Divide between the two dinner plates.
6. See intro for how to eat.

Reviews

[Christopher N.]

Where do you put the sugar? I see it in the list but not mentioned. In the marinade? And to the Cambodians why dont you tell whats wrong in the recipe instead? Ive eaten this in both phenom phen and sieam reap and its not far off.

 

[Karen P.]

I did it and it was delicious - it even pleased a 14 year old Cambodian boy who is away from home. Added sauteed zucchini from the garden and fresh lettuce too. Just left out the cucumbers - can't stand them. Well done - it may not be like other recipes but it was fresh and tasty and the balance of oyster and fish sauce seemed great to me.

 

[Josh T.]

This is as good a recipe as any. It varies a lot in Cambodia, every one has their own recipe. Also it's originally a Vietnamese dish, Bò lúc l?c, so the Cambodian version is basically copy. Laos and Thailand have similar dishes called yam nua (thai) and yam sin ngua (lao). There are not rules, just marinate beef in salt, pepper and lime, grill and add to some greens.

 

[Junedy C.]

Made this a few weeks ago and thought it was easy to make and delicious! Will def be making again.

 

[Eng S.]

I'm cambodian, and this is definitely not how you make it . Sorry but your attempt was an epic fail.