February temperatures, hail sleet and morning frosts. It can only be April! Get some heat in with this delicious spicy beef with Nam Jim and pickled veg. These pickles work well with any hot Thai dish and will keep well in the fridge for a couple of weeks. The Nam Jim is great with lots of meat not just the beef as well as over a delicious raw veg salad.

Thai beef with Nam Jim and pickled vegetables
Serves 4
700g beef – sirloin, flank, flat iron or bavette all work well sliced into strips
Couple of handfuls of peanuts roasted
2 red chilies

Nam Jim Sauce
1 thumb sized piece of ginger peeled and chopped
3 cloves of garlic peeled chopped and mashed
4 chilies red preferably but not critical
juice of  3 limes
2-3 tbsp each of fish sauce and palm sugar or more to taste
1 bunch of coriander including root and stalk

To make nam jim, trim roots from coriander and rinse well. Pick leaves and reserve. (You can use a pestle and mortar if you want to do it the authentic Thai way but I usually throw everything into the processor when I am in a hurry).
Process coriander roots, ginger, garlic, the chillies, lime juice, fish sauce and brown sugar in the processor until well combined and finely chopped.
Combine half the nam jim with beef in a large bowl, cover and refrigerate for about 30 minutes to marinate.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large pan or wok over high heat. Add half the beef mixture and stir-fry for 3 minutes or until beef is browned and just cooked through. Remove from wok and repeat with the remaining 2 tablespoons oil and beef mixture.
Mix remaining chilies, the leaves of the coriander, the cooked beef and remaining nam jim into a bowl and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper, put onto a serving platter, scatter with roasted peanuts and serve with rice or noodles, if using as well as a little bowl of the pickled vegetables. This is chock full of goodness with fresh raw veg and spices making up the dressings and if you want to keep the calories down you could simply toss the picked veg through the beef, add loads of fresh coriander and mint leaves and simply serve as is.

Pickled Veg
A selection of carrot batons, deseeded cucumber, spring onion, slices of cauliflower.
Pack into a jar for which you have a lid.
Pickling juice
Pour 100ml each of water and white wine vinegar into a pot
Add 1/2 tsp coriander seeds, few black pepper corns, some mustard and cumin seeds.
Add 3 tbsp sugar and then heat the mix gently to dissolve together
Take off the heat and let cool. Add your veggies and set aside in the fridge until needed.