Thai Beef Salad

Hello! Long time no see! You probably didn’t even notice I was gone did you? I had surgery…..I could have died…..but I didn’t…..I live to write out more recipes, starting with this rather simple but utterly delish Thai Beef Salad. It’s not quite salad season yet but the beef is still warm when it’s served and combined with the spicy chilli, garlic and dressing, it’s a great salad for winter.

It all comes together with seared beef schnitzel, mesclun salad leaves, crispy noodles, toasted cashew nuts, cherry tomatoes and fresh mint and coriander leaves. I also enjoy snowpea sprouts in mine however so many people seem not to like sprouts. I add them to nearly all my salads, but only mine as I’m the only one in the house who eats them so for this reason I’ve added snow pea sprouts just as an optional for all you sprout ‘haters’ and if you are going to partake, add as many or as few as you like. In saying I love sprouts, I just remembered I once saw a girl literally stuff a cup full of alfalfa sprouts in between two butter-less (gasp of horror) pieces of some rather healthy looking bread…..now that’s just taking it too far! Too far I tell you! (I could only dream to be that health conscious).

I’ve already posted the recipe for this gorgeous Caramelised Chilli & Lime Dressing and that recipe makes one cup however I’ve cut it in half here so it’s just enough with a little to spare for these four salads.

Now it all may look like a lot of work but trust me the dressing and salad are relatively easy, I just took a lot of pics! You can always skip my walkthroughs and scroll down for the ‘quickie’ instructions. 🙂

 

INGREDIENTS

DRESSING
1/2 fresh red chilli pepper (medium-sized)
3 small garlic cloves (1 large, 2 medium)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup lime juice (fresh or bottled. If using fresh you will need approx. 5 medium-sized limes)

SALAD
3/4 cup raw cashew nuts
2 cups crispy noodles (any flavour)
16 cherry tomatoes
16 mint leaves (also 4 sprigs for garnish)
1 cup coriander/cilantro leaves (loosely packed)
2 spring onions
600 grams good quality beef schnitzel
12 cups/handfuls pre-washed, mesclun salad mix (loosely packed)
2 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce (mild, medium or hot…whatever blows your hair back)

Optional – A handful of snow pea sprouts

 

Serves x 4

 

Note

• If I have Nasturtium flowering I like to garnish each flower with one flower on top, rather than a mint sprig. It looks so pretty and of course is edible.
• Rather than schnitzel you can use rump, sirlion or scotch fillet steak for this salad, fat removed and very thinly sliced.

 

WALKTHROUGH

dressing

First prepare the chilli and the garlic.

Remove the stem from the chili and using a sharp knife cut it lengthways through the centre. Use your knife to scrape out the seeds (it’s okay if you miss a few) and then slice it thinly into long strips. Line all of the strips up together and finely slice them up into tiny pieces. You can then use a large chef’s knife to dice them up more finely if you like. 🙂

Next peel and finely dice up the garlic cloves and set it aside with the chilli.

Next squeeze the juice from the limes and leave it aside also.

To begin the ‘scary’ part…..place the sugar In a small heavy bottomed pan.

Leave it over a medium/low heat.

Just leave it to do it’s thing……it will start to melt around the edges (mine started after a minute).

Melted sugar is hotter than boiling water so please don’t make this around the kids and just be very careful!….I’d hate it if you got burned when making one of my recipes. 🙁

Just as the melted bits start to turn an amber colour drag those bits into the centre with your spoon.

Keep watching and as more of it turns amber, drag it into the centre.

• Dragging it in moves it and stops it from going dark brown and burning, which will turn the flavour of the sugar from sweet to bitter so in turn will give you a bitter dressing…..we don’t want that!

Just continue dragging any amber bits around the edges into the centre…..but do not stir the sugar, it may crystallise.

• Try not to drag any in unless it has changed colour or you will be moving it around unnecessarily and moving it around too much could cause it to crystallise or be quite lumpy later on…..try to be patient (pot calling the kettle black, lol).

It will start to look a bit ‘messy’ but that’s okay.

…..still keeping a close eye…..

When two thirds of it has melted you can very gently start to stir it and also crush any lumps with the end of your spoon to speed things up a bit…..

…..until it has all melted (just to give you a ball park this amount of sugar should be caramelised and totally melted anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes).

It’s such a gorgeous colour!

As soon as all the sugar has melted and whilst still over the heat, quickly add the diced chilli and garlic and…..

…..stir them in for 30 seconds.

Then add the lime juice.

Turn the heat up to medium/high and stirring often bring it to the boil.

If it is lump free, it’s all done but if there are still some lumps turn the heat down to medium/low again and still stirring it, let it softly simmer until they have dissolved.

• If you’ve simmered it for a few minutes but there is a little stubborn lump of sugar just remove it because if it hasn’t dissolved after a few minutes it’s not likely to at all.

Place the dressing into a bowl and place it into the fridge to cool down.

• Any excess dressing can be stored in a jar or bottle in the fridge for up to 4 weeks!

salad

So now that the dressing is done it’s time to do a little bit of salad prep.

First you need to toast the cashews (much, much tastier).

So preheat the oven to160°C fan bake oven or 180°C conventional oven, on bake, with a rack situated in the centre of the oven.

Once the oven is up to temp place the cashews into a baking dish and toast them in the oven for 5 minutes, then toss them well and toast them for a further 5 minutes or until they are two or three shades darker then raw.

Then get the noodles out and ready from their packet.

Slice the cherry tomatoes in half, through the core.

Run and pluck the mint leaves and the coriander from your garden (or steal it from the neighbours).

• I always wash mine and pat them dry with paper towels, especially after rain as the dirt splatters up onto the leaves.

Next slice the spring onions, on an angle, lengthways into long, very thin strips.

If using snow pea sprouts, get those out and ready also.

Leave it all aside now so you can tend to the beef.

Next check the schnitzel. If there are large bits of white sinew or fat, with a really sharp knife, carefully cut it out.

• I try to buy good quality schnitzel which has less fat and sinew otherwise I waste too much .

Then slice it (against the grain) into 2 cm (3/4 inch) strips.

• In case you don’t already know, cutting against the grain means cutting it through/across the meats natural muscle fibres and not in the same direction as them. So have a look first to see what way they are running. This helps you meat to be more tender, and less chewy.

So now you’ve prepared, the last thing to do is cook the beef.

As it doesn’t take long to cook, first throw the lettuce, cashews, noodles, tomato halves, mint (roughly tear up the leaves), coriander leaves and spring onion slices into a large bowl and toss them all altogether. Set the bowl to one side and get your serving plates and cutlery ready (it’s best to serve whilst the beef is still warm).

• I add the sprouts later.

So heat up a large frying pan or a wok over a medium/hot heat and when it’s hot add one of the tablespoon of vegetable oil.

When you think the oil is hot, throw approx. half of the beef in.

• I cook the beef in two parts because If there is too much beef in the pan or the pan isn’t large enough it won’t sear properly. Overcrowding will create steam and then water and your beef will boil instead of sear and it won’t get a nice colour and will also be chewy. If I ever make the mistake of over crowding I remove whatever I’m cooking immediately, wash and dry the pan and start again, adding less to the pan.

Slowly toss it about and turn over any raw sides until it all looks nicely seared. You want it a nice golden brown on the outside but still rare and moist in the centre.

It shouldn’t cook for longer than a minute.

• You don’t want to overcook it as it will be chewy…..no pressure….haha.

Remove it from the pan to a plate, wipe the pan out with a paper towel (or quickly wash and dry it) and then return the pan to the heat.

Add the remaining tablespoon of oil, wait for it to heat up and then sear off the remaining beef.

As soon as the second lot is done add the already cooked beef back into the pan and add the sweet chilli sauce.

Toss it altogether over the heat for around 30 seconds and it’ll be nice and caramelised.

Turn off the heat and quickly toss the beef through the rest of the salad.

Drizzle a teaspoon of dressing on to each plate and add 3 tablespoons to the salad bowl. Toss it all together using your tongs and loosely divide the salad loosely between the plates and nice and high.

If using them, poke some sprouts (in twos or threes) into the mesclun here and there, so that you can see the pretty green ends and just some of the white stalks poking out (a bit as if they just happened to sprout out of the salad!)….Also garnish with the little mint sprigs….looks so pretty!

As I mentioned earlier, serve immediately as it is yummier when the beef is still warm.

I hope you love this as much as I do. 🙂

Do your children enjoy eating sprouts? Do you stuff them between a few slices of bread for a super healthy sammie?