[Vietnamese Recipes] Steak Salad

I love the fresh­ness, spici­ness and com­plex bal­ance of South East Asian cook­ing. I was never much of a greens eater, but I devour herbs and raw veg­eta­bles in these sal­ads. You have all your com­ple­ment­ing tex­tures and fla­vors here in this Viet­namese Steak Salad: sweet, salty, sour, crunchy, soft, not to men­tion that this con­coc­tion is pretty good for you, too.

It’s worth buy­ing a good qual­ity steak, as the meat is just seared. Make sure you use Vidalia onions for opti­mal sweet­ness. Gen­tly caramelize them in a bit of veg­etable oil — don’t cook too fast, medium-​low heat will do.

But exqueeze me, fruit, veg­eta­bles and meat together? Hell, yeah! It’s totally, totally fine, even though it took a while for my brain to process at first. Once you grasp the basics, it’s also easy to sub­sti­tute what­ever veg­eta­bles you have on hand.

I include a link to a juli­enne peeler below — it’s hard to cut the car­rot so finely oth­er­wise, unless you have an evil man­dolin. (I had one. I value my fin­gers more than pretty car­rot sticks)

Viet­namese Steak Salad

Author: Aleks @ Canuck​Cui​sine​.com
Recipe type: Salad
Cui­sine: Viet­namese
Serves: 4

Ingre­di­ents

2 tsp veg­etable oil
450g (1lb) beef fil­let, cut into steaks 1 inch thick
½ cup beansprouts (not pictured)
1 bunch each: basil, mint, cilantro — stalks removed, leaves torn
6 cups of mixed greens
1 grape­fruit, segmented
1 large car­rot, sliced into fine juli­enne style (this will change your life)
roasted peanuts, for garnishing
1 large Vidalia onion, sliced and caramelized, for garnishing
1 lime, cut into slices (to serve)

Dress­ing
2 tbs raw cane sugar
2 gar­lic cloves, crushed
2 lemon­grass stalks, finely sliced and chopped
1 red Thai chilies, seeded and finely sliced
2 limes, grated and juiced
2 tbs fish sauce

Instruc­tions

1. To make the dress­ing, place the sugar, gar­lic, lemon­grass and chilies in a mor­tar. Pound until it forms a paste. 

2. Add the lime juice, rind and fish sauce. Mix to com­bine. Set aside.

3. Pour the oil into a heavy pan, or wok, and rub around the base with a brush. 

4. Heat the pan and sear the steaks for 1 – 2 min­utes per each side. 

5. Turn over only once. Trans­fer them to a board and leave to rest until cooled slightly. 

6. Using a sharp knife, cut into thin slices. Toss the slices in the dress­ing, cover and leave to mari­nade for 1 hour.

7. Drain the meat or excess juice and trans­fer to a serv­ing bowl. Add the veg­eta­bles and toss every­thing together. Gar­nish with caramelized onions and peanuts.

This recipe and image sources are referred in website: Canuckcuisine.com. Thanks so much!