Name: Grant Achatz’s Thai-spiced jerky
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 180 min
Total time: 210 min
Yield: 8

Grant Achatz’s Thai-spiced jerky

The chewy texture and touch of South East Asian flavours adds a twist to the traditional crudités at holiday meals.

Serves 8

Prep

30M

Cook

Total

3H 30M

“I love the sweet-sour, salty-acidic, spicy flavours of Thai cooking,” says Achatz. “Here, we play with the idea of the obligatory crudités everyone has at holiday meals by drying them into chewy textures and adding the flavours of South East Asia.”

Pictured with grilled prawns and beetroot with chilli and smouldering cinnamon

Ingredients

4 large carrots, peeled and sliced 2mm-thick lengthways

1 daikon, peeled and sliced 2mm-thick lengthways

1 small butternut pumpkin, peeled, seeded and sliced 2mm-thick lengthways

1 jicama, peeled and sliced into 2mm-thick rounds (see note)

2 large tomatoes, blanched, peeled, sliced into 5mm-thick rounds

1 kg beef rib-eye, fat removed, sliced across the grain into 2mm-thick slices

1 head red-leaf lettuce, such as oakleaf

Coriander, to serve

Thai dressing

100 ml fish sauce

100 gm caster sugar

100 ml lime juice

60 gm Thai basil leaves, torn

60 gm mint leaves, torn

60 gm coriander

20 gm ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

6 kaffir lime leaves, torn into small pieces

2 birdseye chillies, thinly sliced

2 red shallots

1 lemongrass stalk, thinly sliced

1 large garlic clove, thinly sliced

Method

Main

1.For Thai dressing, stir fish sauce and sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat, add remaining ingredients, cover and stand at room temperature to infuse (at least 3 hours, or overnight in the refrigerator). Strain through a fine sieve.

2.Combine vegetables with a third of the dressing in a container, toss to coat well, cover and refrigerate to marinate (3 hours).

3.Combine beef with half the remaining dressing in a separate container, toss to coat well and refrigerate for 3 hours to marinate.

4.Preheat oven to 95C. Spray two wire racks with non-stick spray or brush with a neutral-flavoured oil and place on a large baking tray. Blot vegetables and beef with paper towels (do not wipe or rinse) and arrange on racks so they’re not touching. Place in oven and dry until shrivelled (2-2¼ hours for pumpkin, 2¾-3 hours for beef and remaining vegetables; check often to avoid overdrying).

5.Brush both sides of beef and vegetables with dressing, arrange on a platter lined with lettuce leaves, scatter with coriander and serve with remaining dressing.