About this recipe
Lok lak is seared beef, cut into cubes or thick slices, served over a bed of fresh lettuce, tomato and raw onion with a bright dipping sauce of lime juice and coarse Kampot black pepper on the side. It is a much-loved everyday and restaurant dish in Cambodia, quick to cook and built around good beef and good pepper. The dish shares its name and lineage with the Vietnamese bò lúc lắc, 'shaking beef' — the name refers to tossing the beef in the pan — and this book presents it in its Cambodian form while noting that shared root rather than assigning the dish to one country. What distinguishes the Khmer version most is the tuk meric dip: lime, salt and the prized black pepper of Kampot, kept separate from the meat.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Prep
- 25 minutes (plus 30 minutes marinating)
- Cook
- 10 minutes
- Total
- 65 minutes
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Spice
- Mild (pepper-forward, not chilli-forward)
Allergens Contains beef and, in the marinade, soy and often oyster sauce (shellfish); the optional egg adds egg. Not vegetarian. See the halal-status field.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
The beef and marinade
- 1 1/4 lb (570 g) beef sirloin, tenderloin or another tender cut, cut into 1 in (2.5 cm) cubes
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) soy sauce
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) oyster sauce (or a mushroom-based substitute)
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) fish sauce
- 2 tsp (8 g) palm sugar, grated
- 1/2 tsp (1 g) freshly ground black pepper, preferably Kampot
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) neutral oil, for cooking
The bed and garnish
- 1 head green-leaf or butter lettuce, leaves separated
- 2 tomatoes, cut into wedges
- 1 small red onion, thinly sliced into rings
- 1 cucumber, sliced (optional)
- 4 eggs, for frying (optional, one per serving)
- Steamed rice, to serve
Tuk meric — the Kampot pepper-lime dip
- 1 tsp (2 g) coarsely ground Kampot or other good black pepper
- 1 tsp (6 g) salt
- 3 tbsp (45 ml) fresh lime juice
- 1 tsp (4 g) sugar, to balance (optional)
- 1 red chilli, finely sliced (optional)
Equipment
- Wide, heavy skillet or wok
- Mixing bowls
- Small bowls for the dipping sauce
Method
- Combine the beef with the garlic, soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, palm sugar and black pepper. Toss well and leave to marinate 30 minutes at cool room temperature, or up to a few hours in the refrigerator.
- Arrange the lettuce, tomato wedges, onion rings and optional cucumber on a serving platter.
- Make the dip: in each small bowl, stir together the ground pepper, salt, lime juice, optional sugar and optional chilli until the salt dissolves. Taste; it should be sharp, salty and peppery.
- If serving fried eggs, fry them now in a little oil to your liking and keep warm.
- Heat the 1 tbsp oil in the skillet or wok over high heat until it just smokes. Add the beef in a single layer, without crowding, and let it sear undisturbed for about 1 minute, then toss and sear another 1 to 2 minutes for medium, tossing (‘shaking’) the pan so the pieces brown on all sides. Work in two batches if your pan is small.
- Pile the seared beef over the salad bed. Top each serving with a fried egg if using.
- Serve immediately with steamed rice and the pepper-lime dip, dipping each piece of beef into the sauce at the table.
From the foundations
The book pairs this recipe with the following, from the sauces, sambals and pastes that open the collection.
The Complete Edition
Beef Lok Lak sits in the Cambodia chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Cambodia chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.