Thai Beef Salad

35 minutes

2

Introduction

So this is a dish I cooked before.  

It’s seared beef with Thai style salad.  

The original recipe:  

- seared steak  

- deep-fried rice noodles 

- crisply shallots with lime dressing  

- chilli,  

- mixed herbs,  

- toasted pinenuts  

Although this salad has been made many times since, the picture has become a tool that helps me create new dishes from it.  

The original dressing uses peanuts, shallots chilli, garlic, coriander stems, fish sauce, lime juice and sugar. By changing the dressing, I can change it into an Italian dish, or a Moroccan dish and even a French dish.

Steps

• Mix the lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, half of the herbs - together. Reserve half of the herbs for garnishing.

• Heat a frying pan on medium high heat.  Season the steak and rub over with oil.  

• When the pan is smoking, put steak into the pan. Usually count to 45 seconds becfore you turn it over. Repeat this twice.  Remove the pan off the heat and let steak rest in the pan.

• Heat oil in a wok. Test that the oil is ready but standing a chopstick in the oil.  The oil should bubble actively around the chopstick.

• Break the rice noodles into 4 and fry them one by one.  The noodles will puff up really quickly. Remove them and drain on kitechn paper.

• Remove steak onto a chopping board. Using the same pan, saute the garlic and shallots till golden and then pour in the lime mixture. Bring to a simmer until the sugar has dissolved.

• Plate the crispy noodles onto a plate, slice steak & place on top the noodles. Drizzle with the dressing.

• Sprinkle over with the toasted pinenuts, crispy shallots, sliced chilli and so of the herbs.

• Drizzle with the dressing & serve immediately.

How to make

Turning it into a French Dish: 

I substitute the noodles for potato noodles that has been sautéed briefly in butter.  In place of the thai dressing, I serve this steak & potato noodle dish with a truffle-almond-mushroom-garlic-parsley dressing. 

 Turning it into an Italian Dish:  

I switch the dressing in a spicy tomato pesto with garlic, cheese, tomato puree, fresh tomato and pine nuts.  The noodles can be zucchini noodles/ thin angel hair pasta/ butternut squash noodles or even a mix of the 3!  Instead of steak, I could use a choice of prawns, squid, chicken and even fish.  

Turning it into A Morroccan Dish:  

With a mix of harissa, tomatoes, cumin, coriander & rose; the dish is now a sensual and mysterious dish with lamb loin/cutlet and crispy rice noodles.  Ireplace the thai dressing with a pistachio-herbed tabbouleh dressing.