Thai beef salad with a western twist

Photographer: Adam
serves 4

The first time I ate this was actually in Spring about a year ago. One of the product evaluators for Dishdrawer threw a pot luck dinner and Craig, an electronics engineer, brought this gem along. The coriander jazzes the greens up, the cucumber provides a satisfying crunch, while the beef provides protein and deliciousness. A worthwhile summer/spring salad that I recommend you try your hand at.

Making it for this months post turned into an afternoon of trickery as I used slightly dried chilli’s (my justification for this faux pas was they needed using up!) which pack a lot more punch than their fresh counterparts. Thinking about it now I probably used a little bit too much too. I left the salad out for engineers to sample and then sat back and watched them breathe fire. Luckily we had some of Lauren’s salads to make up for our mischievous ways, crisis averted. It was quite hilarious though.

INGREDIENTS

Greens
1 telegraph cucumber cut into 3cm chunks
½ cup coriander leaves
3 cups mesculun leaves
1 avocado cut into 3cm chunks
1 cup of cherry tomatoes halved
1 cup sliced green beans

Beef
1 tsp soy sauce
400g lean rump beef all fat trimmed off

Dressing
½ tsp (fresh) red chilli deseeded minced
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp garlic finely chopped or minced
1 tbsp chopped coriander
1 tsp brown sugar
¼ cup cold water
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 chopped spring onion

METHOD


1. Marinate the beef in the soy sauce for an hour or over night.
2. Boil some salted water and blanch the green beans, after 5 minutes remove from heat, drain and place into iced water. Drain again and combine with other salad greens.
3. Combine the ingredients for the dressing, stir well and set aside.
4. Bring some vegetable oil in a pan to heat then fry the rump steak for 2-4min on each side. Rest for 10-15min and slice thinly.
5. Combine the beef with the greens and dressing, serve and enjoy